Herbalists in Nakuru are calling upon the county government through the County Assembly to enact laws that will ensure the protection of medicinal plants from destruction.
Nakuru Herbal Medicine Practitioners Association (NHMPA) Chairman Samuel Busienei remarked this on Monday when he led other officials of the association in an assessment tour of medicinal plants at Hyrax Prehistoric site and Museum within Nakuru town.
The herbal medicine practitioners’ association boss noted that the government was casting a blind eye on the continued destruction of local natural environments that host medicinal plants, and noted that the trend would likely suffocate the practice of medicinal plants.
At the same time, Busienei urged the government to empower herbal medicine practitioners in the conservation of medicinal plants in the county.
“We are concerned that the government is acting blind on the continued destruction of natural environment that hosts medicinal plants. We are asking for laws that will ensure that natural environments that are gazetted or not, be preserved to host medicinal plants,” he said.
“What we are experiencing now is a total danger to natural plants that play a big role in herbal medicine and we should be given power to lead the way in their conservation,” said Busienei.
He added that the association had mapped out over one thousand tree and shrub species in various local natural environments that it wants the local government to protect from further destruction by enacting laws and policies towards that.