Collymore named to cancer agency board for 3-year stint

Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore has been tapped to the board of National Cancer Institute in appointments that will kick start the work of the agency that will fine hospitals and doctors for not reporting cases of the deadly disease.

Mr Collymore was appointed for three years together with three others including David Makumi, chair of the Kenyan Network of Cancer Organisations, Mercy Oburu, Royal Media head of digital content and Dr Evangeline Njiru.

The four will fill the vacancies at National Cancer Institute, which had a chairperson, Dr Ochiba Lukandu, allowing for the dormant agency to start work.

Mr Collymore took a nine-month medical leave in late 2017 to the UK to battle cancer.

The roles of the institute include maintaining cancer cases registry, advising Health Cabinet Secretary on ways of combating the deadly disease that kills nearly 40,000 Kenyans annually and support supply of diagnostic kits.

“The institute plans to strengthen the National Cancer Registry where every hospital and doctor will be required to report new cancer cases,” said Mr Makumi.

The registry is anchored in the Cancer Prevention and Control Act 2012, which has penalties for failure to report cancer cases.

Doctors and hospitals that fail to inform the National Cancer Institute of cancer cases and deaths face a fine not exceeding Sh200,000 or imprisonment for a term, not exceeding two years or to both.

Kenya has been relying on estimates from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

In its Globocan 2018 report, the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer said that 47,887 Kenyans get cancer every year and 32,987 die from the disease.

Rising cancer cases, especially among the poor, have highlighted the need for equipment and specialist doctors in health units.