A renowned City lawyer, Donald B. Kipkorir, on Sunday bashed KTN for a news feature on cancer.
The KTN feature, dubbed Cup of Cancer attributed high levels of throat cancer in Kenya's Western region to hot tea and Mursik.
The report was reinforced by a research nurse,Vincent Lundo Likata, Judy Grace Otera an oncology advanced nurse and Rose Otera, a palative nurse from Kakamega cancer centre and Kakamega hospice respectively.
However, Kipkorir who is a Managing Partner, KTK Advocates, refuted the claims stating that research, especially on cancer is an advanced field beyond nurses.
"How can KTN rely on nurses to tell us that tea or mursik causes cancer? Surely? Cancer research is an advanced field and with respect, beyond the pay grade of nurses.
In the feature, Rose claimed that the majority of the patients at Kakamega hospital are receiving treatment for cancer.
"The majority of the patients we see here at Kakamega hospice are coming in because of throat cancer and they both men and women," she stated.
Judy further disclosed how hot fluids, especially hot tea, that is widely consumed in the region alter throat cells leading to cancer. However, she admitted that hot fluids and food only partially predidposed a user.
"When you take a lot of hot fluid or food, you burn the cells of the throat, you change them, they start mutating differently that predisposes, somehow, it's not 100 per cent," she affirmed.
Another official at the hospital also admitted that statistics link hot fluids to throat cancer but Kakamega hospital was only relying on past documentation and had thus not done its own research.
"Yes it true that some statistics link it with hot drinks especially tea but we have not done our own research to document that but it has been documented elsewhere as a significant risk factor," he stated.
Kipkorir thus urged the mainstream media to respect Science.
