How courts and AG cleared Mediheal on kidney transplant storm

When Mediheal chairman Mishra Kiprop addressed the media concerning a report by the national assembly health committee implicating him in commercialisation of kidney transplant. [Collins Kweyu,Standard]

Mediheal Group of Hospitals has argued that the investigation that nearly brought its kidney transplant programme to its knees terms were “flawed and unconstitutional.”

Additionally, the High Court had also issued orders restraining the government from revoking the citizenship of its chairman, Dr Swarup Mishra, or removing him from the country. 

Although the hospital had been described as a hub for organ trafficking, Mediheal also provided documents claiming that the Independent Investigative Committee on Tissue and Organ Transplant Services (IICTOTS), whose 338-page report formed the basis of the damning allegations, was established without legal authority and in direct usurpation of the statutory mandate of the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC).

The hospital also points to a conservatory order issued on 2nd December 2025 by Justice E.C. Mwita in Constitutional Petition No. HCCHRPET/E702/2025, which restrains the government from “terminating the 3rd Respondent’s (Dr Mishra's) citizenship or removing him from Kenya until further orders of the Court.”

“The Health CS had no power to appoint the Committee. The said misplaced mandate as irregularly exercised by the 1st Respondent and the 1st Interested Party is statutorily provided to the 2nd Respondent/KMPDC.” reads the petition filed on 15th October 2025. “

The petition recounts how the Cabinet Secretary for Health, on or around 1st August 2025, publicly threatened to revoke Dr Mishra’s citizenship, stating: “You cannot come to our country 20 years ago with a bag, you make money, you sell our organs, you become a member of parliament. If it means revoking that citizenship – because your citizenship is not by birth, we will revoke it, close your hospital and deport you.”

Mediheal argues that such a statement, made before any finding of wrongdoing, demonstrates open bias and political interference.

The hospital further notes that the committee included doctors from rival hospitals, which created a clear conflict of interest. “The Committee members incorporated professional and institutional competitors of the petitioners in open bias,” the petition states.

In its response to the committee’s findings, Mediheal does not deny documentation gaps but places them within the context of a complete absence of Kenyan regulations governing transplant ethics committees, international patient verification, and donor-recipient relationship proof.

On the allegation that 25 Israeli recipients were matched with donors from Azerbaijan, a pattern the committee called suspicious, Mediheal clarifies that: “In absence of laws for international patients, the patients selected their donors from outside Africa. We don’t have control where 25 out of 67 Jewish patients got donors from Jews from Azerbaijan, bearing in mind that Jews are dotted all over the world.”

On the claims that Kenyan kidneys left the country, Mediheal states: “This is completely false since no Kenyan kidney left the country or was given to a foreigner.”

Regarding the most explosive allegation that all 407 affidavits examined lacked proper legal documentation, the hospital again said that was completely false, and also argued that the affidavits are valid as per Kenyan law.

“We have done 476 cases. Total files are 476 recipients and 476 donors, bringing to a total of 972. Total missing files are 7 in a span of 7 years. Therefore, missing files are zero,” says Mediheal.

The committee had painted a picture of a dysfunctional ethics committee that ceased functioning in 2022, with a marketing coordinator signing documents retroactively. Mediheal’s response is measured: “There are no laws or guidelines to follow. No regulations were provided.”

On the nephrologist, Dr AM, describing himself as a “one-man show”, the hospital clarifies that all patient documents, audits and SOPs are available at the hospital and with the doctor. It adds that patients were reviewed by cardiologists at its Nairobi centre and other specialists as needed, even if formal minutes of multidisciplinary meetings were not consistently kept.

The hospital also notes its clinical outcomes that over 476 kidney transplants have been performed since November 2018, with a success rate of over 98 per cent  a figure not disputed by the committee.

Amongst the documents provided by Mediheal is a letter from the Attorney General.

In a letter dated 13th April 2026 to the Clerk of the National Assembly, the Office of the Attorney General warned that any public deliberation on the IICTOTS report risks prejudicing the pending court proceedings.

The AG advised that the committee became functus officio upon submitting its report and “ought not to be required to appear to debate or defend the findings of the Report.”

The AG further stated that legal custody and responsibility for implementation of the report vested in the Ministry of Health, not the committee.

Based on responses from the Judiciary and the Attorney General, Mediheal rejects any involvement in organ trafficking.

“Mediheal is never involved in trafficking. It is not involved in donor selection. As far our knowledge goes, none of the donors were paid by the hospital.”

The hospital says it has always complied with all regulations provided, and where regulations were absent, it followed international guidelines such as KDIGO and sought guidance from regulators – guidance that never came.

“We have never indulged in any form of organ tourism,” the hospital asserts.

With the High Court conservatory order in place and the main petition still pending hearing, the fate of the IICTOTS report hangs in the balance. 

Until then, Mediheal says it remains open to lawful, constitutionally mandated investigation, but not by a committee it believes was illegally constituted from the start.