Organ transplant probe team camps in Uasin Gishu amid Mediheal trafficking claims

The committee was appointed by the Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale and mandated to establish the existing legal and regulatory framework governing tissue and organ transplant services in Kenya.

It was further mandated to conduct an in-depth investigation into any non-compliant tissue and organ transplant services offered in health facilities and to assess the status of governance, ethical, legal, and clinical practices of tissue and organ transplant services across facilities.

The team will visit nine counties in the next 18 days, four of these to be spent in Uasin Gishu. It held a sitting in Vihiga County last week, and will later visit Bomet, Meru, Kisii, Nakuru, Kisumu, Nairobi, and Mombasa for similar hearings.

Committee Chairperson Elizabeth Bukusi explained that Uasin Gishu allocated four days following reports of rogue facilities enabling organ and tissue trafficking through transplants.

"Some of the allegations that could be inappropriate practices started here, and the individuals who came up to speak about the possibility that services that were procured might not have been appropriate were here in Uasin Gishu. That is why we are giving a lot of time to this particular county," Prof Bukusi said.

Read: Shame of Kenya’s broken organ transplant laws

She said the move will ensure that they satisfactorily capture data and information from everyone available.

"We are available for anybody who wants to speak to us in public and in private. We have provided a telephone number and email address that they can use to contact us so that we can make appropriate facilities for anyone to come and speak to us,” she said.

Mediheal Group of Hospitals, at the centre of the organ transplant services saga and implicated in organ trafficking, has assured the team that it will share the required information to enable successful investigations.

“Mediheal turned up to confirm their preparedness to cooperate with the committee, to avail all the materials the committee may require to satisfy itself on the properties in the transplants that were done by Mediheal,” said Mr Katwa Kigen, the lawyer representing the Mediheal Group of Hospitals and Fertility Center.

"We had already submitted our documents and position as Mediheal, specifically as concerns the issue of kidney transplants, and today we have also appeared to show our willingness to cooperate fully on this matter,” he said.

Read: Shame of patients neglected by health insurance system

Prof Bukusi said the exercise targets to investigate all services offered within the country relating to tissue and organ transplantation and determine whether they meet the required standards.

“The committee will look into the question of regulations and policies that enable the services offered appropriately in the country," she said.

She stressed the independence of the investigative committee, even as she acknowledged an ongoing inquiry by the parliamentary committee on health relating to the subject matter, noting that Parliament’s mandate is to the electorate, while it is a technical review within the Ministry of Health to determine what is required from legislation, policy, guidelines and standards of the practice.

“There has been a process of drafting the law that will be able to regulate tissue transplant blood. It has not yet become law, it is still a work in progress,” she stated.

The committee is expected to hand its report to the Health CS by July 22.

Until Thursday, the team will be camping at the Social Hall in Eldoret West Market, where members of the public have been invited to present themselves and share any relevant information.

Nairobi County has been allocated two days for the exercise, with the committee planning to take a single day for the remaining counties.

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