Tanzania protects traditional healers, herbalists: minister

The government of Tanzania said on Wednesday it will continue improving and protecting traditional healers and herbalists because more than 60 percent of Tanzanians depended on their services.

Ummy Mwalimu, the country's Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, told the National Assembly that traditional healers and herbalists were legally recognized by the government through the Traditional and Alternative Health Practice Council.

She said the government have so far set up a new registration system for herbalists and traditional healers in which they were supposed to register at their specific localities under the office of the District Medical Officers (DMOs).

The minister was responding to a question posed by Joseph Kasheku, a Member of Parliament for Geita-Rural, who expressed concerns over low education of some of traditional healers and herbalists in the country.

Kasheku wanted the government to come up with an educational plan for traditional healers, saying many Tanzanians depended on their services.

Hamad Masauni, the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, said the government arraigned 26 traditional healers in Ushetu district in Shinyanga region for allegedly conducting services without permits.

"Some of the arrested traditional healers were found in illegal possession of government trophies," Masauni told the august House.

In Tanzania, traditional herbalists are all over the country claiming to cure a sort of illnesses, including HIV/AIDS.

In 1974, the Traditional Medicine Research Unit was established at the University of Dar es Salaam. In 1989, the government set up a Traditional Health Services Unit, in order to unify traditional health practitioners and mobilize them to form their own association.

Traditional health services were officially recognized in the National Health Policy of 1990. In 2002, the Traditional and Alternative Medicines Act was introduced. Endit