KENYA
Located on the Eastern coast of Africa, Kenya has a gross domestic product of $101 billion. Cancer is the third leading disease-related cause of death in Kenya, and second leading disease-related cause of death by non-communicable disease. Breast, cervical, prostate, esophagus, and colorectal cancer accounted for over half (50%) of the estimated new cases in Kenya in 2020.
Stats at a Glance
53m
People in Kenya
42,000
Approximate new cancer cases in a year
27,000
Approximate cancer deaths in a year
The Kenyan government launched a five-year cancer control program in 2017 to address the rising burden of cancer in Kenya. Since then, the Kenyan Ministry of Health has taken multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary approaches in the implementation of the cancer prevention and control program.
At the direction of the Ministry of Health, Kenya joined the African Access Initiative (AAI) in June 2017. Since then, five Kenyan hospitals have joined AAI to address their cancer care priorities.
AAI In Kenya
Imaging Training to Transform Breast Cancer Patient Outcomes in Africa
Participants of the 2025 AAI Breast Cancer Early Detection and Referral Part 2 digital course Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Africa, claiming more than 91,000 lives in 2022 alone. A major contributor to this high mortality rate is the high frequency of late stage diagnoses. Access to routine screening mammograms…
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Hospitals Gain Knowledge to Detect and Refer Breast Cancer Cases
Participants of the AAI Breast Cancer Early Detection & Referral Part 1 course In collaboration with the National Cancer Control Program in Kenya, BVGH launched the AAI Breast Cancer Early Detection & Referral Part I digital training program late last year. This 6-session series focused on the multidisciplinary aspects of the early detection of breast…
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Kenyan Pharmacists Strengthen Their Oncology Pharmacy Skills
Dr. Nancy Guo (left) and Dr. Alexandre Chan (right) review the course structure with participants Following its 2023 AAI Oncology Pharmacy Digital Lecture Series, BVGH held an on-site training program in Kenya to build upon the digital training topics and refine attendees’ oncology pharmacy knowledge and skills. Held at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), the AAI…
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Clinical trial training program addresses cancer data gap in Africa and enables new research ventures for African clinicians
Africa has historically been overlooked by the international oncology research community, resulting in the continent’s participation in less than 2% of all cancer clinical trials. Africa’s underrepresentation in cancer clinical trials has culminated in an alarming lack of data describing the effects of new cancer technologies and treatments in the world’s most genetically diverse population.…
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AC3T Study Pool Mini-Grants empower early-career cancer researchers
Despite representing 4% of the world’s new cancer cases in 2020, only 0.5% of cancer clinical trials have been performed in sub-Saharan Africa. Several factors, including the continent’s limited number of experienced clinical researchers, have contributed to Africa’s underrepresentation in clinical trials. Given the continent’s predicted increase in new cancer cases over the next two…
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Our Hospital Partners
- Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH)
Data on this page sourced from:
Kenya population: World Development Indicators | DataBank (worldbank.org)
Cancer cases and cancer deaths per year: VizHub – GBD Results (healthdata.org)
Cancer occurrences by type: 404-kenya-fact-sheets.pdf (iarc.fr)
Cancer control plan: Kenya Launches National Cancer Control Strategy 2017-2022 | WHO | Regional Office for Africa