Kenya Hit By Acute Blood Shortage As Billionaires Make A Killing

By Soko Directory Team / Published November 29, 2019 | 9:53 am

When is the last time you donated blood in Kenya, be it in an institution or the public drives organized by the Kenya Blood Transfusion Service? Well, your blood might have gone a long way in enriching a greedy Kenyan.

The Kenya National Blood Transfusion Service has confirmed that it has no blood in its blood banks and neither does it have the funds to run the blood donation drive throwing it into a crisis that is likely to throw Kenya into a mess in case of a major need of blood.

Whether you have donated blood once or ten times, if you got into an accident and found yourself in a situation where you desperately need blood transfused, then your life will rely on your friends and families rallying people to donate blood for you.

The Kenya National Blood Transfusion has confirmed that it is indeed in a crisis and cannot afford the soda and bread it gives to those donating blood neither can it afford the distilled water.

The Cost of Donated Blood

How much does it cost the Kenya National Blood Transfusion Service to get a pint of blood?

Ridiculously, a pint of blood only costs the National Blood Transfusion half a loaf of bread and a 500ml soda but ever thought how much it costs that dying patient whom life you thought your blood would save?

The blood you and I donate is soon turned to a cash cow barely before it even lands into the blood banks and in return, you gallop through swallowing the half loaf of bread and soda as the real hero you ought to be, only for the blood to be put up on sale at exorbitant prices.

Donated blood is sold in the form of pints and to the highest bidder selling from as low as 6000 shillings and as high as 17,000 shillings a pint.

Times When Kenyans Have Desperately Required Blood Transfusion

A secure country does not have the option of not having blood in its blood banks as this makes it impossible for it to save the lives of its citizens in the scenario of a crisis such as an accident.

Kenya has required blood in large amounts every time it has experienced a terrorist attack such as during the US embassy attack, the Westgate Mall attack, the Dusit Duplex D2 attack, the Garissa massacre, with not a pint of blood in the Kenyan Blood Banks as it is, the number of deaths during attacks would have been more.

The number of people that have lost their lives due to loss of blood after being shot in the numerous terror attacks would probably have been less if the Kenya National Blood Transfusion Service had blood.

Road accidents, collapsed buildings and the big number of mothers who lose a lot of blood during delivery do not always have to result in so many deaths if Kenyans came out in big numbers to donate blood whether there is a crisis or not.

Kenyans are relenting on the donation of blood as the realization of the fact that they will never be able to access blood for transfusion whenever they are in need as the blood they donate is mostly for the rich who can afford the 6000 shillings to 17,000 shillings.

There is an urgent need to restructure the board and everyone working at the Kenya National Blood Transfusion Services or simply hand over the mandate to a morally upright organization that understands that there is more to life than money and power, there is life.

About Soko Directory Team

Soko Directory is a Financial and Markets digital portal that tracks brands, listed firms on the NSE, SMEs and trend setters in the markets eco-system.Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/SokoDirectory and on Twitter: twitter.com/SokoDirectory

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