Herbalists petition Parliament

Feb 12, 2009

THE National Council for Traditional Healers and Herbalists Association (NACOTHA) has petitioned Parliament to enact a law to regulate their activities.

By Paul Kiwuuwa

THE National Council for Traditional Healers and Herbalists Association (NACOTHA) has petitioned Parliament to enact a law to regulate their activities.

The herbalists want to be monitored like medical doctors, nurses and midwives.
A 20-man delegation led by NOCOTHA secretary general Karim Musaasizi yesterday presented the petition to the Speaker, Edward Ssekandi.

Musaasizi said the organisation was registered in 1990 to regulate and monitor activities of traditional healers and herbalists.
He said they were operating in 46 districts and managing 79 registered associations.

“The absence of an enabling law has attracted masqueraders, who engage in ritual murder, rape, swindling, gambling, robbery and bribery,” Musaasizi said.

He added that some masqueraders had been found with guns, fake money and stolen property.

“There is an influx of foreign healers, who are not monitored. Some associations have come up as national overseers. They register whoever can pay,” the petition reads.
Musaasizi said legislation of the traditional medicine was overdue.
“We are not killers. We are committed to sustaining the lives of people.”

Ssekandi said he had not received any proposed law to provide a proper monitoring structure.
He advised the petitioners to forward their proposal to the health ministry, which would send it to Cabinet. Cabinet would then present the draft for debate.

Ssekandi said: “I do not understand why healers diagnose people in darkness. Children have been murdered. Traditional healers should heed my warning.”

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