Dr Joyfrida Chepchumba

Joyfrida Chepchumba is currently the Program Officer in charge of Treatment, Palliative Care, and Survivorship Pillar at the National Cancer Control Program. She coordinates all activities pertaining to cancer treatment, including partnering with health experts in both public and private sector to develop policies and guidelines to inform best practice in cancer treatment. She has coordinated development of several health policies related to cancer management including the first Kenyan Palliative Care Policy. Other policy documents under development include the National Radiotherapy protocols and Rehabilitation guidelines for children with cancer. She also oversees the M-saratani mobile platform, an e-learning platform which hosts content on early diagnosis of cancer targeting primary healthcare workers in the country. She has been working with the Ministry of Health, Kenya for over 10 years in the public health system.

She is a pharmacist with a Master’s degree in Health Economics and Policy and a Bachelor Degree in Pharmacy both from the University of Nairobi.

Dr Chepchumba previously worked at the National Quality Control Laboratory for seven years as a senior analyst where she oversaw ensuring quality of medicines and medical products through standardized analytical procedures. She is an active member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya (PSK) the umbrella body for all pharmacists in Kenya.
She has submitted abstracts to different local and international conferences including the World Cancer Congress (2022), Kenya Society of Hematology and Oncology (2022), Oncology Nurses Chapter (2022) PSK (2015).

She is passionate about collaborations in developing robust heath systems to improve the quality of life for patients in the oncology space.

Dr John Weru

John Weru is an assistant Professor in Pain & Palliative Medicine at the Aga Khan University Hospital. He chairs the Hospital Ethics Committee at the institution and leads the East African Steering Committee in Palliative Care (EAPCSC) within the Aga Khan Health Services. He is the chair of the board of the Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Association( KEHPCA). He is a faculty member with the ECHO-PACA II and the CK-BTI projects.

He is a peer reviewer with the Journal of Supportive Care in Cancer and sub-editor of the Palliative Medicine and Hospice Care Open journal. He has published peer reviewed articles and written multiple book chapters. He is the local PI for a multinational study ” ECHO Telementoring to Improve Quality of Palliative Care in Zambia, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and India.

Lilian Obetto

Lilian is the CEO of Retailpay; a retail solution-oriented technology platform, and a cancer warrior, who believes that cancer does not define who she is and her quality of life after trans versing the cancer journey for well over a decade.

Back in 2011 she had lumps on her breast and upon visiting a gynecologist, she was misdiagnosed. In 2012. the lumps were bigger, she had the first successful surgery, a lumpectomy. In mid-2017, there were metastases to the Femur bones and Nodes to the lungs, Lilian had a surgery where she had a rod implant on her left hips; this was after she had done sessions of Radiotherapy, chemotherapy, thereafter oral tablets, and Complex Chemotherapy which unfortunately, Lilian could not afford to the end.

In May 2020, Lilian started experiencing tremors in her hand and she suffered a mild stroke, the cancer had spread to Lilian’s brain. In November 2021 her mobility was compromised, leading to a brain surgery done in March 2022, thereafter Bone brain craniotomy in February 2023.

Lilian visits and encourages other cancer warriors including children with cancer; she is grateful to The Rotary who play a key role in these activities. Lilian advocates for better cancer management to the government. In November 2019 when she was graciously invited to speak where the current head of state then Deputy President was the guest of Honor- to this end there were changes made upon her request to The Head of state.

n March 2021 she initiated a cancer awareness talk in Nyakach, where 40 people attended. She shares her journey on her first book called Unbowed- How God rescued me from different storms” In this book Lilian has penned down a message to the head of state once again and believes that he will continue listening and helping those affected with cancer.

Mrs Mercy Kamau

Mercy Kamau is a Senior Palliative Care Nurse, Consultant and Trainer on health issues. She is a Kenya-registered Nurse/ Midwife. United Kingdom registered Nurse and holds a higher diploma in high dependency unit nursing. She has many years of clinical experience with the critically ill patients both in Kenya and United Kingdom.

Mercy worked as a clinical instructor at the Nairobi hospital and a senior nurse in Aga khan ICU, Manchester NHS trust U.K in the Acute cardiology ward and head of clinical department at Nairobi hospice.

She holds a higher diploma in Palliative care from Oxford Brookes University and have a BSc in palliative care from Makerere university.

Mercy is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Palliative care specializing in children palliative care at Makerere university. She trains at Nairobi Hospice as a part time lecturer in their palliative care diploma course, affiliated to Oxford Brookes University.

Muthoni Mate

Muthoni Mate is a professional epidemiologist with over 15 years’ experience in health research and health systems strengthening within the African Continent. Her experience with end-to-end implementation of medical research programs and her aptitude for community-rooted solutions lend themselves very strongly to the type of solutions that Africa is moving towards. This involves the designing and implementing of innovative African health solutions with a global mindset.

Muthoni is a person living with Cancer and her experience crystalized the realities of lack of reliable information, under resources and a fragmented healthcare system on the outcomes of a cancer diagnosis. This redefined her world view and reaffirmed her contribution in the battle against all types of cancer which lead to the establishment of The Cancer Café (www.cancer-cafe.org) – an innovative non-profit organization that tailor- makes solutions for people living with cancer by linking them to resources and simplified, holistic, credible, consistent information about cancer prevention, management and rehabilitation.

Muthoni has been involved in the generation and implementation of key governance in cancer prevention and management -The Kenya Cancer Policy 2019-2020 and the Kenya National Cancer Control Strategy 2012 – 2020 among others.

She also seats on various technical advisory forums, The National Cancer institute of Kenya and the Non-Communicable Disease ICC Monitoring, Evaluation and Research. She is also a Rotarian – a humanitarian institution with the mission of service above self.

Sidney Misigo Chahonyo

Sidney is a confident, assertive, goal-oriented professional, with over 13 years’ experience in the public, private and social impact sectors. Sidney is an 18-year cancer survivor (cancer of the postnasal space) dedicated to changing the cancer landscape and is passionate about creating lasting social impact with regard to holistic childhood cancer care in Kenya.

He serves as the Executive Director of Hope for Cancer Kids, Kenya. He sits on the board of the Kenyan Network of Cancer Organizations (KENCO) and He is a member of the African Regional Committee of Childhood Cancer International (CCI). Sidney is a member of the technical working group for Childhood Cancer and also a member of the TWG on Prevention, Screening, & Early Detection (PSED) at the National Cancer Control Program, Kenya.

Ms Benda N. Kithaka (Moderator)

Benda Kithaka is a Health Advocacy & Behaviour Change Communications Specialist, with over 20 years’ experience in communications, research, and health advocacy.

She is the founder of KILELE Health Association, a Kenyan non-profit organization located in Nairobi, with a mandate to operate in the country’s 47 Counties.

KILELE Health specializes in empowering people living with chronic conditions (cancer and other NCDs) and their caregivers to use their lived experiences as advocacy tools for disease prevention, stigma reduction and improvement of quality of life beyond the diagnosis. The organization is committed to engaging members and other stakeholders in improving the understanding of quality of life issues. Current programmes focus on advocacy, behaviour change communications, capacity building, and exchange of best practice, research, and resourcing. This is achieved through promotion of physical activity, mental wellness, financial wellness and pursuit of optimal health; as tools for the attainment of wellbeing.

Benda sits on various global, regional and local Technical Working Groups in an advocacy and advisory role. She co-chairs the AORTIC Advocacy Special Interest Group regionally in Africa, and in Kenya is Co-Chair of the STOP Cervical Cancer technical working group. She is also a Trainer, Facilitator and Public Speaker in advocacy for Women’s Health. Previously she served on the Board of Women4Cancer for nine years, a Kenyan NGO she co-founded in 2012, whose Vision is a Cervical Cancer Free Kenya.

She has received various awards including the International Gynecologic Cancer Society (IGCS) Distinguished Advocacy Award 2019, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) award to participate as the civil society voice in the Regional Consultation on the Elimination of Cervical Cancer in the African Region (May 2019). She is also the Cancer Ambassador of the Year 2016 in Kenya.

An alumni of the AORTIC Master Cancer Advocacy Trainer Programme in 2013, her advocacy work includes writing the WHO Regional Office for Africa Advocacy for Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control in Africa Facilitator Manual in 2015 – 2017, and Master Training of Expert Trainers of Trainers from 10 WHO AFRO Countries in use of the toolkit in Africa (2017).

To complement her advocacy with systems strengthening, she undertook an Executive Diploma in Leading High Performing Healthcare Organisations Program (LeHHO) at the Strathmore Business School: Institute of Healthcare Management in Kenya (2016). In 2020, she was also trained as a MOTH Story Teller, a skill she is using to inspire others to tell their stories in advocacy, acting as a catalyst for change.

Under the KILELE Challenge, Benda summited Mt. Kenya Climb with Cancer Survivors in September 2020, to highlight cancer survivorship challenges and advocate for post treatment empowerment of women cancer survivors across Sub-Sahara Africa.