The National Assembly Health Committee on Tuesday, April 22, revealed that they will launch an inquiry into organ trafficking allegations at Mediheal Hospital in Eldoret.
In their probe, the committee, chaired by Seme Member of Parliament James Nyikal, is expected to deliver its report in 80 days. The latest comes after Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale suspended kidney transplant services at the hospital last week.
It followed a special investigation by Deutsche Welle, German media ZDF, and ‘Der Spiegel’ that revealed that Kenya was at the centre of an international organ trafficking syndicate. The investigation implicated Mediheal as the hospital where the illegal transplants were being conducted.
According to the investigative piece, recipients pay up to $200,000 (about Ksh25.9 million) for an organ transplant, with the research spanning from Mediheal in Kenya to a shadowy agency that attracted organ recipients from Germany, exploiting vulnerable people at both ends.
In one of the cases, a young Kenyan man was paid $4,000 (about Ksh518,120) to donate his kidney, albeit under unscrupulous circumstances. While speaking to the media houses, the man revealed that he was introduced to a middleman who arranged transport to the hospital, where he was given documents in English, a language he does not understand, to sign.
DW’s investigation revealed that the international network that coordinates the operations finds local donors through paid referrals, while in some cases, the donors are allegedly flown from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan.
The report by DW also disclosed that despite the alarm raised by local health administrators in Kenya, no action has ever been taken on the hospital behind the transplants. Also, a report done on the hospital a few years ago was never made public.
In the aftermath of the revelations, Duale suspended two officials at the ministry who were suspected of being implicated in the scandal.
On Thursday, April 17, Duale confirmed the suspension of Maurice Wakwabubi, the acting Head of Kenya Blood Transfusion and Transplant Services (KBTTS), and Everlyne Chege, who chaired the Ministry’s multidisciplinary team, which was deployed in December 2023 to investigate the facility.
Further reports that emerged revealed that the government was privy to suspicious activity from the hospital as of July 2023, when the Transplantation Society wrote to it. After the alarm was raised, the ministry revealed that the aforementioned multidisciplinary team was instituted and tasked with investigating the matter in depth. They made their first fact-finding trip to the hospital between December 5 and 8, 2023.
From the trip, they discovered that 372 transplants had been carried out at the hospital over the past five years, with most beneficiaries being residents of the East African Community, Australia, Israel, Japan, the USA, and the UK. 99 per cent of these were made using new technology.
However, the facility lacked sufficient documentation to verify the relationship between donors and recipients, with some of the documents revealing that donors came from different nationalities. All the Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) – crucial before transplants – were made in India without approval by the MOH.
President William Ruto proceeded to take firm action, suspending Mediheal owner and Kenya Biovax Institute chair Dr. Swarup Mishra on Friday, April 18.
In an official statement, the president revealed that the suspension followed a series of investigations over unethical activities involving the recent cases of organ trafficking.
Aside from the probe launched by the MPs, Duale’s ministry has also begun its own inquiry into the hospital to establish the truth behind the allegations.
“I am appointing an independent committee of transplant experts, drawn from public and private health facilities, professional associations, and relevant regulatory bodies to undertake a comprehensive audit of all kidney transplant services at the Mediheal Group of Hospitals for the past five years,” Duale announced on Thursday, April 17.
Source: kENYANS.CO.KE