While the toe selling business in Zimbabwe a few weeks ago was the biggest joke of the year, the illegal organ trading is going in Kenya more so for the kidney.
According to an investigative piece by Daily Nation, the business is thriving very well in Oyugis, Homabay county especially among youths over aged above 25, both male and female.
Several people who have sold one of their kidneys narrated their experiences to the local daily detailing how the business is secretly ongoing.
One of the victims, who was identified as Elijah to conceal his real identity, sold his kidney in April for a whopping Kshs700,000. He chose to do so because he needed money to build a house and buy a motorcycle. He is yet to recover from the surgery.
“I was not donating my kidney to anyone, I was doing this for money. After finishing Standard Eight, I did not have the privilege of joining secondary school. Since then, life has been so cruel,” Elijah told Nation reporters.
He however went through the procedure after informing his father. He linked up with a broker based in Homabay. From the start, he was informed that the business is illegal and should remain top secret.
Together with the broker, they traveled to Eldoret for screening and several medical tests, since the buyer wanted a healthy kidney. After the test, he was asked to go back home and wait for their call. His transport was catered for. A month later he was informed that the tests were successful and the surgery to extract his kidney should proceed.
In the company of the broker, they went back to Eldoret but to a different location and signed some papers. The whole procedure was done in a hospital. The source was however reluctant to give any details regarding the hospital where the procedure was done or those who did it but he said it took about four hours. He was then taken to a recovery room, not in the hospital and later driven to another location where he recovered for four days. He was paid his dues in cash, but the drugs and every other cost was taken care of by the group of people behind the surgery.
Elijah said that the group can only be reached through brokers and people like him who have undergone the surgery.
Another source who also underwent the procedure in Eldoret was paid Kshs400,000 for his kidney and his surgery was performed in a building that looks like a church.
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