Damning investigations into the Mediheal Organ trafficking scandal has revealed that a shocking majority of kidney donors involved in transplants at the Mediheal Hospital in Eldoret were young people from the Mt Kenya region — raising disturbing questions about the exploitation of vulnerable populations in a suspected international organ trafficking network.
The revelations come in the wake of a confidential report and an official letter from global health and human rights agencies that flagged suspicious transplant activities at the facility, prompting both national and international investigations.
Between November 2018 and March 2024, Mediheal Hospital conducted 382 kidney transplants. An overwhelming 75 percent of the donors came from Mt Kenya, Northern Kenya, and Rift Valley regions. Out of these, over 100 individuals with Mt Kenya-linked names are believed to have donated kidneys, many under questionable circumstances.
Media reports , backed by access to over 80 pages of confidential medical records, patient affidavits, and donor forms, established that most of the recipients were foreign nationals — with Israeli citizens topping the list at 37 cases. Others hailed from the DRC, Uganda, Burundi, South Sudan, and even Japan.
The Kenya Renal Association (KRA), alarmed by the findings, has demanded the immediate suspension of Mediheal’s license, citing unethical conduct and violations of both domestic and international transplant laws. Their probe revealed that many of the local donors were lured with promises of quick money, often receiving as little as Ksh 600,000 to Ksh 700,000 for their kidneys — while foreign recipients allegedly paid upwards of Ksh 20 million per transplant.
“This is not medicine, this is medical trafficking,” said one health expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We are talking about poor youth from central Kenya being turned into living organ sources for wealthy foreigners. It is outrageous.”
The scandal is now being actively investigated by Parliament’s Health Committee, which has summoned security and medical regulatory officials. Nandi Hills MP Benard Kitur described a case of a young man from Elgeyo Marakwet who sold his kidney and was later found struggling with serious complications in a rural village.
Mediheal Hospital, which is associated with former Kesses MP Dr. Swarup Mishra, has strongly denied the allegations. The hospital claims that it only facilitates legal transplants where the recipient provides a donor, and all procedures are subject to regulatory oversight.
However, questions remain about how such a high concentration of donors could originate from specific regions and how a single facility became the transplant destination of choice for dozens of foreigners — without raising red flags until now.
Further scrutiny has also revealed that Mediheal is under financial stress, with several of its facilities facing closure or auction due to loan defaults, adding another layer of mystery to the unfolding scandal.
As the probe intensifies, rights groups and international agencies are calling for a complete overhaul of Kenya’s organ donation and transplant laws to prevent the commercialization of human organs and protect the country’s vulnerable populations from exploitation.
