Government probes global organ trafficking claims

Days after Deutsche Welle, ZDF and Der Spiegel alleged that a private hospital in Kenya is at the centre of an international organ trafficking ring, the government confirmed that it has been investigating the matter. In a statement on Tuesday, the Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale said that the Ministry has been aware of suspicious activity at the hospital since 2023, reports the Kenyans. According to Duale, the Ministry deployed a multi-disciplinary team to investigate the matter in depth. From the first fact-finding trip to the hospital between 5 and 8 December 2023, the team discovered that the hospital has conducted 372 transplants over the past five years, with most beneficiaries being residents of the East African community, Australia, Israel, Japan, the USA, and the UK. According to the Ministry, 99% of these were done using new technology, however, the hospital lacked sufficient documentation to verify the relationship between donors and recipients, with some of the documents revealing that donors came from different nationalities. Additionally, the Ministry claimed that all the human leukocyte antigens, which are crucial before transplants, were made in India without a green light from the government.

The Ministry confirmed that the team will now conduct a follow-up trip to the facility to ensure compliance. Additionally, the Ministry will conduct an audit on all the other kidney transplant facilities in the region. But, the vice-president of the hospital said that all organ transplants in the facility are conducted within the law. Additionally, the vice-president claimed that patients who go to the hospital for organ transplants are the ones responsible for looking for a donor, and that the facility only receives money from the services rendered to the client.

Full report on the Kenyans site