By Samuel Inshutiyimana

On Saturday, September 23, 2023, students from the School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences attended the World Pharmacy Day 2023 celebration event organized by the Pharmacy Students’ Association of Kenya (KEPhSA) in collaboration with the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya (PSK). This year’s World Pharmacy Day theme was ‘’Pharmacy Strengthening Health Systems’’. Convening at Kabarak University, the event attracted pharmacy students, from all nine schools of pharmacy in Kenya, and several industry experts in the field of pharmacy namely; Dr. Eva Amwayi (Regulatory Pharmacist), Dr. Ermias Terefe (Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at USIU-Africa), Dr. Victor Achoka (Community Pharmacist), Dr. Lydia Momanyi (Clinical Pharmacist), Dr. Hesbon Njau (Clinical Pharmacist), and Dr. Stephen Kigera (Pharmacist at Mission for Essential Drugs and Supplies-MEDS).

With the theme, the industry experts elaborated on their perspectives on the current status of health systems and the role of pharmacists in improving health systems. Dr. Lydia pointed out some of the factors including leadership that hinder the efficient and effective healthcare system if not well conducted and proposed the need to diagnose the current health system, starting from how decisions are made. Moreover, Dr. Lydia talked about Universal Health Coverage and shed light on opportunities it provides to pharmacists such as data analytics, procurement, supply chain management, training, and mentorship. This also served as an encouragement for students to explore more on these areas. Dr. Ermias shared his insights and experiences on strengthening health systems where he emphasized the need to ensure the availability of enough pharmacists and the integration of pharmaceutical servicers with health facilities. He also encouraged students to be advocates of the same by leveraging their social platforms.

Thereafter, students from the School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences got an opportunity to meet and chat with pharmacy students from other universities. Accompanied by their approachable and inspiring professor Dr. Yasodha K. Janapati, our students participated eagerly in different quizzes and games. The day ended with the panelists and PSK members awarding the event winners and our students emerged victoriously with four trophies, rendering them the 2nd Best overall winners, next to Kenya Methodist University pharmacy students.