The Committee on Tissue and Organ Transplant Services has called for the creation of a strong deceased organ donation programme to ease the heavy reliance on living donors.
In its report, the Committee pointed out that Kenya’s current organ donation system is extremely limited, with most transplants depending on living relatives as donors.
This overreliance, the report explains, has made it difficult to access critical organs such as hearts, lungs, livers, and corneas – organs that can only be transplanted from deceased donors.
“To achieve the above objective, the government will engage the public, polity, religious, and cultural groups to increase awareness, benefits, safety, and acceptability of deceased organ donation,” the Committee stated.
Deceased organ donation involves the retrieval of organs and tissues for transplantation after a person has been lawfully declared to have died, either due to brain death or the irreversibility of circulatory collapse. Oftentimes donated organs include kidneys, hearts, livers, lungs, and pancreases. Corneas, heart valves, skin, and tendons are donated to help cure or improve the lives of suffering patients.
The Committee on Tissue and Organ Transplant Services stressed that setting up a functioning deceased donor programme will require major investment. Key among its proposals is the establishment of a national organ procurement organisation to coordinate all deceased donor activities across the country.
Further, the Committee also asked for countrywide training programs for healthcare professionals. They would focus on accurate brain death determination, proper management of deceased donors, and successful transplant coordination to ensure secure and effective organ recovery and utilization.
“It is essential to build capacity in both public and private health facilities to handle the ethical, clinical, and operational demands of a functional deceased organ transplant system,” the Committee noted.
The Committee on Tissue and Organ Transplant Services, chaired by Prof. Elizabeth Anne Bukusi, was appointed by Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale to review the ethical, legal, and clinical frameworks guiding organ and tissue transplantation in Kenya.
The committee is made up of a multidisciplinary team of experts, including clinicians, legal professionals, ethicists, public health workers, and one patient representative in order to have a balanced response to the sensitive and complex issues of organ donation.
This review was brought about by rising public concern and malpractice reports, with allegations emerging of possible organ trafficking and immoral transplant practices. The work of the committee aims to regain confidence from the public as well as improve security in the country’s transplant system.
