•The authority will be required to regulate all services relating to human cells, tissue and organ transplant.
•It will also register and license facilities and establishments dealing with human cells, tissues and organs and transplant services.
Image: Courtest: healthylivingwellness
President Uhuru Kenyatta has created a new authority to oversee tissue and organ transplants.
In a Gazette Notice on Wednesday, he said the Kenya Tissue and Transplant Authority will ensure access to safe and ethical use of human cells, tissues and organs as well as safety, biosafety and wellbeing of donors and recipients.
The authority, which replaces the department of National Blood Transfusion, Tissue and Human Organ Transplant Services, will be in office for three years on renewable contract.
The membership will consist of a chairperson appointed by the President, the Treasury PS, the Health PS, the Attorney General and one person who is not a governor but nominated by the Council of Governors.
It will also have three other members appointed by the Gender CS and a chief executive officer who shall be an ex-officio member of the board.
The authority will be required to regulate all services relating to human cells, tissue and organ transplant.
It will also be mandated to register and licence facilities and establishments dealing with human cells, tissues, organs and transplant services.
“The Kenya Tissue and Transplant Authority shall maintain a registry of transplant service providers, donors and recipients and establish an equitable mechanism for matching and allocation of cells, tissue and organs,” the notice reads.
The authority shall also mobilise, educate and sensitise members of the public to foster voluntary donations of cells, tissues and organs.
“It will inspect hospitals periodically for examination of the quality of transplantation and the follow-up medical care to persons who have undergone transplantation and persons from whom organs are removed,” Uhuru said.
The authority has also been mandated to enter, search and inspect any place suspected of indulging in unauthorised removal, procurement or transplantation of human cells, organs or tissues.
This will come as a relief, especially to kidney patients as transplant is the treatment of choice for end-stage kidney disease.
Experts have argued that while dialysis is a lifesaving treatment, it performs only about 10 per cent of the work a functioning kidney does.
Ministry statistics show that 661 kidney transplants have been carried out in the country since 2006.