Interviewer: Tell us about where you studied pharmacy and how you got into the practice of pharmacy.
Dr. Stanley Memba Mokaya: Thank you very much for this interview. My name is Stanley Memba Mokaya. I'm a fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya. I studied pharmacy in the UK at the University of Manchester from 1972 to 1975. After that, I did one year of pre-registration, which qualified me to be registered with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, to which I became a member upon completing that training, which ended in the middle of nineteen seventy-six. I went to the UK at that time because the school of pharmacy had not started in Nairobi, but subsequently, of course, it started later on. But I was one of those students who were privileged to get an opportunity to study pharmacy in the UK. And how I got into studying pharmacy, it was like, in my A levels, I think we had some of our teachers or lecturers who were from the UK. And they were giving us options of careers that one can do. With my grades that I got at my A levels, I could have done medicine. As a matter of fact, I think I was given a space to do medicine in the University of Nairobi, but we opted, myself and another colleague of mine, we were in the same class in high school, we went to the University of Manchester to study together.
Interviewer: Tell us what sectors of pharmacy have you worked in, and what are your key contributions in the positions of influence that you have held?
Dr. Stanley Memba Mokaya: Yeah. So upon completing the course, I came back to Kenya, despite the fact that at that time, there were very many attractions to stay in Britain and do masters, etcetera. In fact, the University of Manchester had recommended that I do masters because the research that I did for my award of my degree was very interesting. Actually, it was on plastics, and they wanted me to stay on so that I could further on that study that I was doing. But I chose to come back, and I joined a pharmaceutical company by that time, Sibagaigi. It doesn't exist now as Sibagaigi; it is part of Novartis. And I joined them immediately I came to Kenya and worked with them, in fact, for more than twenty years. And my interaction with the University of Nairobi was when I came back, of course, there were some lecturers who were in the University of Nairobi who too had studied in the UK. And because I knew they were there and I knew they had experience in the UK, so I started interacting with them, as the school was developing, from 1974 onwards to 1978 when the first graduates came out. And soon after in the early eighties, I was in a position in the company that I have just mentioned to absorb the first graduate from the University of Nairobi. So one of the persons that we employed, when the opportunity came, was actually a graduate, one of the first graduates of the Department of Pharmacy from the University of Nairobi. I may not want to release the name, but there was such a candidate. And then subsequently, we employed three others. So in a way, we interacted with four graduates of the University of Nairobi to work for that company in various responsibilities from salesmen to managers and even to senior managers in the company.
Interviewer: And how was your introduction? Was it a positive interaction?
Dr. Stanley Memba Mokaya: It was very positive. When they came, they were keen. These persons were very keen. They were bright. They were very clever and they were very willing to learn new skills. They hadn't been exposed to marketing because ours was a marketing company and in the course in the university, I don't think marketing was being given very much prominence. But these students, now employees of the company, were very keen to learn and they were very quick to learn. They got absorbed into the culture of the company and they were very bright and keen and they started making very positive contributions to the development of the company. And while they were doing this, of course, there was a lot of interactions now with the department of pharmacy, with the lecturers that I have said that I knew or had heard of when they were in Britain because some of them had been actually trained in Britain. And being a pharmaceutical company and being a school of pharmacy, you can imagine there is a lot in common that you can do because the products we were selling, they were the kind of products they were also being taught in the University of Nairobi.
Interviewer: Okay. Now honing into the impact of pharmacy on the society, what would you say has been your impact into the society as a pharmacist? And how has it helped shape the practice of pharmacy in the country?
Dr. Stanley Memba Mokaya: Well, you see, there's so many things you can say over the years. We're talking of several decades here. But when we started, when I joined the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya, the number of pharmacists in the country was small, and the indigenous pharmacists were few. But over time, they have grown. I have served as a chairman of the society, pharmaceutical society. I have served in the board, in the Pharmacy and Poisons Board, which is responsible, of course, for the regulation of pharmacy in the country. And I have represented in the past, our country within the Commonwealth where I was a member for many years, in the Royal Pharmaceutical Association for quite a number of years. I also represented the country as a member of APSECA. APSECA was the Association of Professional Society of East and Central Africa, of which I was privileged to serve there as a member. And within the industry, we were, of course, having a group called KAPI, Kenya Association of Pharmaceutical Industry, of which my company was a member, and I was representing the association as a vice chairman. And in that position, of course, we were protecting the industry from quacks, from, you know, malpractices that could happen in the profession. So I did play quite a role with the help of others in making sure that we took off in the right footing. I helped in the initial composition of the code of ethics. It was revised later on. I also was actually an editor in chief of the Pharmaceuticals Journal of Kenya, and we were getting a lot of information also from the Department of Pharmacy, when they were doing some articles that related to particular subjects of research and so on. So I would say that the impact was that it's always my wish that industry as well as a teaching institution like the University of Nairobi, Department of Pharmacy work together because in the end, you come up with a product, and that product is meant for the alleviation of disease conditions that affect people. So the pharmacists are being trained by the university, but the products are being made by the industry. So collaboration in terms of research, in terms of any clinical trials, Unfortunately, we couldn't do so many clinical trials because most of the products we are getting were already finished products, but I wish that, as the development of pharmacy goes in any particular country, there should be this very close neatness between industry and the research institutions and the universities in terms of development, formulation, and application of these substances which get invented from time to time for the alleviation of disease.
Interviewer: Okay. Thank you. Now what would you, you have mentioned a number of things. What would you say you'd like to be remembered for as your particular impact? Like, just maybe one instance. Okay.
Dr. Stanley Memba Mokaya: Come again. What would you like to be remembered for? For I there are many things. I would like to be remembered as one of the pioneer pharmacists who wanted ethical standards in the practice of pharmacy and in the practice of medicine as a whole. I remember when we started, we didn't have so many generic products. Most of the products were branded ones, especially from, you know, the developed nations. But I've seen that during the course of time, local industry has come up forward, and we supported them quite a lot. In fact, my company was really always looking forward to supporting the local industry wherever possible. The economies of scale, unfortunately, didn't reach a level where that particular company will setup a factory here. But I remember myself, and some of my colleagues who were venturing in the local industry, that we were supporting them wherever we can. But in terms of remembrance is, we contributed in really, coming up with what you see today. Much as the controls may have changed a little here and there, but, like the code of ethics that I referred to, we initiated, the award of pharmacies being given the honorable title of doctorship so that they could also be seen as really on equal footing with the medical personnel. When we started, it was during my tenure as the chairman of the pharmaceutical society in the late eighties. So that is one of the contribution that I can say together with others, of course, that we initiated that one. We worked with others also, in the pharmacy board to make sure that the products were registered because the registration of medicines because previously, when we started, the products were not being registered in the country. But it was during the time that I was a role in the industry and as well as a big role with the society and with influence in the university that we instituted the idea of registration of pharmaceutical products in the country. And that was a very good thing because now you regulate what comes in, make sure that it is safe and effective for the people in Kenya.
Interviewer: Now as a parting shot, we've come to the end of our interview. What do you see as your vision for the development of pharmacy training and practice in Kenya? And what words of encouragement would you offer to?
Dr. Stanley Memba Mokaya: Well, I will wish that we can develop the local production. We can come up with new products that are even devised and developed locally and that there will be close collaboration between industry and the university and even research institutions so that we have products which are also very specific, some of the conditions we find in our countries, which may not be found out there. So that close cooperation between industry research and the academic institutions like the University of Nairobi should be encouraged. And my vision is that that will be encouraged and also to see a pharmacist being fully integrated in the health care system in terms of clinical pharmacy whereby the pharmacies is recognized and is trained adequately to be the specialist in medicine because, really, you train for all these many years, you are the specialist in medicine. So when it comes to recommending particular medicines for particular condition, who else to ask except a pharmacist? Because he knows how it is made. He knows the contraindications. He knows the interactions, and he knows what is going to go work best. Of course, they will always be a clinician, but there is an important role of a pharmacist. That is a very important link between the patient and the deceased. The pharmacist comes in between there. And I would hope that, as we go alone, a pharmacist will be seen as a very important partner in health care system. And I encourage those who wish to do pharmacy. It's a good course. It's a good career. It has so many branches. You know? You do pharmacy. When I trained, I didn't know I was going to be a marketing person. But you do pharmacy, it gives you, first of all, the people who do pharmacy are usually they score very high grades, and they are very clever people. They are very enthusiastic. And if trained well, given opportunity, they can go into diverse branches of pharmacy and medical practice, I could say, or health service, I should say, not necessarily medical practice.
Interviewer: Yes. Okay. And finally, maybe you'd like to congratulate and give best wishes to the university or.
Dr. Stanley Memba Mokaya: I wish I wish the university all the best. We have seen it grow from 1974. We have seen people who have come out. A lot of them are my friends, and I congratulate them for having stood by. I've come up with so many pharmacists who are in various areas of practice now. I have seen a situation where there were only pharmacies in big commercial areas like Nairobi and Mombasa and Kisumu and Eldoret. And now you see pharmacists that are everywhere in the counties, in the towns, and it's still there. The people still need more pharmacists. So I encourage those who are out there to think of pharmacy, it's a good career. It gives you many areas where you can practice when you work hard and you qualify and move on to specialties in various fields for which we don't have time to go into all of them.
Interviewer: Okay. Yeah. Thank you very much.
Dr. Stanley Memba Mokaya: Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity. And once again, congratulations for the alumni of fifty years of the University of Nairobi in Kenya. Congratulations. Thank you.
