Kenyans are currently in talks on declaring cancer a national threat.
This especially since three key figures in the country have succumbed to the deadly disease in a month.
The month began with the death of Kenya’s biggest telecommunications company, Safaricom’s CEO Bob Collymore. Collymore succumbed to Acute Myeloid Leukamia. Two week later, Kibra legislator Ken Okoth was announced dead, succumbing to Colorectal Cancer. The most recent blow the country has dealt is the loss of Bomet Governor Joyce Laboso who on Monday succumbed to a battle with cancer.
The recent and very prominent cases of cancer have raised alarm in the country, increasing awareness on its high prevalence.
According to the National Cancer Institute of Kenya (NCI-K) close to 33,000 people succumb to cancer every year.
The report which was presented to parliament earlier, but has suddenly caused panic in the recent days.
New cases of cancer have increased from 41,000 to at least 47,887 cases annually, NCI-K reports.
Cancer is the 3rd leading cause of death after infectious and cardiovascular diseases.
Breast, cervix, oesophagus, prostate and colorectum are the leading types of new cancer cases in both males and females across all ages, with oesophageal cancer being the leading cause of cancer deaths, followed by cervical cancer and then breast cancer.
Netizens, in as much as they empathise with the loss of leaders, think that declaring cancer a national disease has been long overdue.
Everybody now is talking about cancer because some big guy has died.. Statistics show that more than 20k people die of it each year. That was not reason enough to start talking about cancer.
— Benson maina (@bensonmainawa1) July 30, 2019
I have two questions:
1. Must prominet figures die for the whole nation to talk about cancer? The poor die daily in numbers.
2. Must cancer be declared a national disaster for authorities to allocate adequate resources? FYI Malaria and Pneumonia kill more Kenyans than cancer.
— Eric (@amerix) July 30, 2019
Unsurprisingly that’s true. All the sufferings and constraints experienced by the common people come like “news” to the wealthy. Unfortunately, we all possess our vulnerabilities within ourselves. It’s that natural.
— Manuel (@SoulFestPro) July 30, 2019
I feel very sad when #KOT is saying @RobertAlai 's tweet is insensitive. People are dying everyday of cancer and the government of Kenya does nothing. Why pretend to care when one of their own is dead in the hands of cancer (statistics say it kills more than 80 kenyans daily)
— Mbãrì yã Thìgã (@murituh) July 30, 2019
90% of the prominent people in Kenya are in panic as cancer becomes a monster to the rich #RIPJoyceLaboso pic.twitter.com/j7OEMpSsI6
— OGW RANGE (@derrick_range) July 30, 2019