Transforming traditional healers to effective refferal agents in Bumula, Bungoma, Kenya

Story by Winnie Kinaro

Soft spoken 38 year old Wangila lives in Kharakha village in Muanda Sub location, Bumula Sub County. He was born and raised in the village and like many other men in his community, is a small scale subsistence farmer on his 1 acre farm. Wangila is also a traditional healer, known not only in his village but also neighboring villages as people from far have paid him a visit for his services.

“Walakusi” as they are known, are traditional healers who cleanse and rid people out of evil “possessions” that cause ill health. Wangila is middle aged and has general knowledge of common diseases affecting his community despite the fact that he is a primary school dropout out. Wangila’s clients come for various reasons and most believe he has the ability to heal them of common problems majority of which are health related.

PS Kenya’s Health Communication and Marketing Program (HCM) first heard about Wangila from Dorothy, a Community Health Volunteer (CHV) in Kharakha village and we immediately sort out ways we could get to him since he was proving to be a very influential person we needed on our side in the fight against Malaria. Community members were always seeking his services despite receiving constant communication on the need to go visit health facilities when faced with different signs and symptoms. HCM, a 5 year USAID PMI program, worked with Dorothy and developed a plan to bring him on board. He seemed quite willing to partner with us. Our confidence received a boost when we confirmed that he indeed sleeps under a Long Lasting Insecticidal Net (LLIN).

Dorothy’s many sessions with Wangila eventually bore fruits as they now work together. Wangila refers community members to Muanda Health Centre especially those who frequent his place or manifest different common signs and symptoms that are ‘malaria like’. Wangila says his greatest clients are young mothers who are illiterate and school drop outs and because majority believe in him, he performs his “act” then refers them to hospital to seek further examination and tests. He then informs Dorothy who visits the household and ensures that the person does as the Walakusi instructed them; going to hospital. PS Kenya hopes that the visit to the Walakusi will eventually fade away and Wangila will be incorporated in the community unit in his village. In the meantime, since the practice remains strongly rooted, we know the collaboration between Dorothy and Wangila will continue having positive impact in the community.

Wangila is a great influencer and his support to Dorothy has proved vital in her work as a CHV. Dorothy hopes that her CU will eventually be trained in Case Management to help reduce the numbers of people who self-medicate without diagnosis; a big challenge in the community at the moment.