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The Ministry of Health has released a damning report detailing serious ethical and procedural breaches at Mediheal Hospital in Eldoret, following international concerns over possible organ trafficking and transplant tourism involving foreign patients.
In a press statement issued Tuesday by Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale, the ministry revealed findings from a multidisciplinary investigation prompted by a July 2023 letter from the Transplantation Society.
The society raised alarm over a spike in Israeli nationals receiving kidney transplants in Kenya, suggesting the existence of an organised trafficking syndicate exploiting regulatory loopholes.
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Scope of Investigation
The Ministry promptly assembled a task force comprising kidney transplant experts, ethicists, regulatory agencies, and academic representatives.
Their mission was to verify allegations, audit transplant operations at Mediheal, and offer policy recommendations. The team conducted an extensive fact-finding mission between December 5 and 8, 2023.
Key Findings & Red Flags
The investigative team confirmed that Mediheal Hospital had performed 372 kidney transplants over five years, attracting patients not only from Kenya and the East African region but also from countries such as Israel, Japan, the UK, and the USA.
Despite the presence of consent forms in the files reviewed by investigators, the Ministry of Health flagged several troubling irregularities in how kidney transplants were conducted at Mediheal Hospital.
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One of the key concerns was the hospital’s failure to provide adequate proof of relationships between donors and recipients.
In several instances, individuals involved in transplant procedures were of different nationalities, raising questions about whether the donors were indeed related or participating voluntarily.
Additionally, the investigation revealed that many documents were not translated for non-English-speaking patients.
This lapse raises significant concerns about whether patients and donors fully understood the procedures they were consenting to, thereby undermining the principle of informed consent.
Another critical issue was the unauthorised export of human biological samples. The hospital had sent samples to India for Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) testing—a crucial process in determining transplant compatibility—without securing the required approval from the Ministry of Health.
The team also found that the hospital had performed transplants considered medically high-risk. These included procedures on patients with terminal conditions, such as confirmed prostate cancer, and those at the extremes of age, which are typically discouraged due to poor outcomes.
Moreover, the investigators noted a lack of proper clinical oversight at the facility. Key medical protocols, such as clinical morbidity and mortality reports, were missing.
The hospital also failed to convene regular multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings, which are essential for ensuring ethical and medical standards are upheld in complex procedures like organ transplants.
Policy and Regulatory Gaps
The ministry is now moving to develop national standards and regulatory frameworks to curb organ trafficking and unregulated transplants.
These will include guidelines for donor-recipient evaluations, stricter documentation protocols, and the institutionalisation of MDT oversight in all transplanting hospitals.
The Ministry of Health will conduct a follow-up visit to the facility to assess progress on compliance and to conduct a comprehensive clinical audit. Additionally, similar audits will be extended to all seven (7) transplanting facilities across the country to ensure uniform standards and adherence to national transplant regulations.
Duale reiterated the government’s zero-tolerance stance on organ trafficking, vowing continued vigilance and cross-sector collaboration to protect vulnerable populations.