Many Kenyans and leaders have died of cancer latest of whom are Kibera MP Ken Okoth, Bomet Governor Joyce Laboso and former Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore.
Veteran environmentalist Wangari Maathai lost her life in 2011 to ovarian cancer, former Nyeri Governor Nderitu Gachagwa was also killed by pancreatic cancer in February 2017.
Former Kitui West MP Francis Nyenze passed away on December 2017 after a 10-year battle with colon cancer and Moi's son followed on April 2019 with pancreatic cancer.
The list is long and very saddening. But what is this cancer?
Not all Kenyans are in a position to understand what cancer is. In simple terms, Cancer.org describes cancer as a disease caused by an uncontrolled division of abnormal cells which then invade nearby tissues.
There are different types of cancers including but not limited to breast, colon, brain, pancreatic, liver, lung, blood (leukaemia), skin, prostate and many others.
There are cancers the result into visible growths called tumours. However, some do not grow physically. Normal healthy cells in the body have a system which controls their growth and death. However, cancerous cells do not have this system and therefore divide and multiply rapidly without dying.
What makes cancer dangerous is that these cells might appear in one area and then spread to other healthy parts through the lymph nodes. These abnormal cells divide uncontrollably impairing the immune system causing other changes that prevent the body from functioning well hence death. This is usually characterised by multi-organ failure.
What causes cancer? Well, we cannot really say that this and that cause cancer but we can point out some risk factors. These could be biological or internal factors such as age, gender, inherited gene defects and skin type. Environmental factors include UV radiation and fine particulate matter.
Chemical factors include carcinogens like certain chemicals, radioactive materials and asbestos. Lifestyle-related factors include what you eat and also lack of body activity.
We can prevent cancer deaths by going for regular screening which meaning that cancer is controllable.