Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has revealed that the initial report by a government-formed committee investigating alleged organ trafficking at Mediheal Hospital was tampered with and is now deemed legally invalid. The committee, formed in 2023 following a complaint by the Transplantation Society, was tasked with probing claims that foreign kidney recipients had received organs at the hospital under suspicious circumstances.
Appearing before Parliament on Thursday, Duale stated that unscrupulous individuals within the Ministry of Health, specifically at the Kenya Blood Transfusion and Transplant Services (KBTTS), interfered with the final report. He noted that while the multidisciplinary committee—which included transplant specialists, bioethicists, medical regulators, and academic experts—reached consensus on initial findings, the final report was altered before being signed.
“The report of this committee was not signed by all the members because it was doctored. Two members declined to sign it, saying it no longer represented their agreement,” said Duale. As a result, the report was never formally submitted to the ministry and carries no legal or administrative weight.
The original report controversially cleared Mediheal Hospital of wrongdoing, stating that all donor consents were properly documented, procedures were legally compliant, and the hospital employed licensed medical personnel. It even praised the hospital for its use of advanced laparoscopic technology in 99 percent of transplant surgeries.
However, the dissent and allegations of tampering prompted the ministry to suspend two officers implicated in the malpractice. A new Independent Investigative Committee on Organ Transplant Services (IICOTS) has now been established to conduct a fresh inquiry.
Duale assured Parliament that the new committee would submit its findings by the end of July 2025. “The people who committed, facilitated, and aided organ trafficking in the country should be looked for,” he said. “I have an obligation to protect the health of the people.”
The scandal raises serious questions about transparency and ethics in Kenya’s healthcare system and signals a renewed effort to address potential abuses in organ transplantation practices.
