Local traditional medical practitioners are pushing for a law that will help regulate the sector to help sieve out scammers and ensure safety of their patients. According to Gerturde Nyirahabineza, the president of AGA Rwanda Network, an association of traditional medical practitioners in the country, the regulatory law is also needed to ease their working arrangements amongst themselves and with the government. “Some practitioners have poor work ethic because there is no law that penalises or guides them. But if a law is established, they shall follow it and refine their work so that they can even be able to export their medicines abroad,” she said. She noted that with the law, genuine traditional medical practitioners will be protected and authorised which she said will also boost trust among people who seek their services. Nyirahabineza is also aware that practitioners who are currently not part of their network are the ones who most of the time deceive people, which paints a bad image for all practitioners. “Some scammers deceive people that they cure conditions like curses or maledictions. How would they really do that? They should first teach or advise people on how to save money. Some also ask those who approach them a huge amount of money to cure them and end up scamming them. If the law is established, it would sieve these characters out of our practice,” she said. Currently, a traditional medical practitioner becomes a member of AGA Rwanda Network after presenting at least two people who know them right from the village level. She said that genuine traditional medical practitioners are known by their neighbours who recognise their family lineage, adding that the profession is commonly inherited from ancestors although it can also be learned. Commenting on the request, Dr Corneille Ntihabose, Head of Clinical and Public Health Services at the Ministry of Health said that the law that legally establishes the traditional medical practitioners’ association and the clinical services they are allowed to provide, will be available at the end of 2022. He noted that, among other provisions, it will define how the practitioners will provide services, what they are not allowed to do and if people like children and pregnant women are allowed to access traditional medical services or be hospitalized by any traditional healer. He added that the ministry is committed to escalating the establishment of the regulatory law so that it can help in solving issues related to medical services and making proper decisions.
