Tissue and Transplant Authority urges Kenyans to embrace organ donations

Kenya Tissue and Transplant Authority has urged Kenyans to embrace organ donation and come out as organ donors to save lives.

KTTA Deputy Chief Executive Officer Umuro Mamo said organ donation is vital in the medical field as many lives are saved through the kind gesture.

"One organ donor can save up to eight lives while a single tissue donor can save and enhance up to 75 lives," Mamo said.

He spoke on Tuesday at the Kenyatta National Hospital where stakeholders in the medical field had convened to mark World Transplant Day.

The theme for WTD this year was Hope for Tomorrow: Transforming Lives through organ donation.

Mamo said the theme serves as a keen reminder to celebrate and honour the selfless acts of donors.

"They altruistically sacrifice their own needs and comforts to save another life," Mamo said.

Mamo noted that while living-related organ donations have been the existing practice in the country, provisions in the Health Act 2017 have opened up the donor pool to both living and deceased donations.

"This allows for many people to be heroes to others even in death, " he said.

Mamo said the government acknowledges the utmost importance of organ donation and transplantation in preserving and enriching the quality of life. 

Globally, the first successful kidney transplant was conducted in 1954 in the USA.

Kenya was not far behind, as its first successful kidney transplant was conducted on a young Turkana girl named Kokoin in 1978 at the KNH.

Since 1978, Kenya has successfully conducted over 1000 kidney, corneal and bone marrow transplants.