Do you know your kidney could be worth
Sh12.57m ($ 150,000) in the black market?
Before you sell your kidney to get some quick
cash, be very worried. Before you get into that
flight, to go abroad, where a sponsor has gladly
agreed to foot the costs, as well as pay you loads
of money, be afraid.
Vulnerable and alone in a foreign country, on top
of a surgery table in a backstreet hospital, under
anesthesia, they might not only harvest one
kidney, they might harvest both kidneys, your
liver, your pancreas, your lungs, your eyes, and if
there is a ready customer, your heart too. Facing
grinding poverty, some Kenyans have willingly
offered to sell their kidneys. The spread of illegal
organ sales world over has gained momentum,
being abetted by the Internet, a global shortage of
organs for transplants and, in some cases,
unscrupulous traffickers ready to exploit the
economic misery.
They will post their details online, seeking
customers. The customers will then contact the
young money hungry sellers, organise for
transport and accommodation to countries like
Pakistan and India, where the organ will be
harvested, but very few Kenyans ever come back
home. The chilling details of sale of human body
parts were revealed in a report filed by lawyer
Isaac Baraza. “This is what we call victimless
crimes. A person will be willing to sell their
kidney, and they won’t discuss it with family
members of even tell close friends. Once they
leave the country to go donate the kidney, the
sellers take advantage and not only harvest their
kidneys, but also other body organs. Back in
Kenya, nobody knows where the young person
disappeared to.”
Globally, there is an increasing demand for organ
transplants, and this global shortage of
transplants makes organ trafficking a lucrative
business, although it is illegal almost everywhere
in the world apart from Iran. Kidneys are one of
the most wanted organs today, making up about
two thirds of all transplants. According to the
United Nations, around 10,000 kidneys are
illegally transplanted every year.
The profits that criminals harvest from illegal
organ trade are huge. The average price of a
kidney on the black market is Sh12.57 million
but the ‘donors’ get as little at Sh200,000 if they
are lucky enough to actually get out of the surgery
table alive.
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