Citizen TV news anchor puts up his kidney for sale

NAIROBI, Kenya - Veteran Kiswahili news anchor Swaleh Mdoe on Friday confirmed to Capital FM News that he has indeed put up one of his kidneys for sale.

The husband and father say he is willing to part ways with one of the pairs of the vital organs for Sh2.5 million to enable him service loans under whose weight he is struggling.

“I can’t go to back to the bank for a top-up so unless a Good Samaritan bails me out, this is the only other way I can think to raise it,” he said.

Mdoe assures would-be buyers that he is in excellent health and having O+ blood, off to a running start where finding a match is concerned. “I regularly go for check-ups and there have been no red flags.”

The anchor famed for his ‘Babu’ anecdotes says his offer has already raised a lot of interest and mixed reactions.

“As we speak I’ve already received 98 calls with people either encouraging me or asking me not to go through with it.”

The story of Mdoe selling his kidney was carried in a local daily on Friday and was thereafter widely shared on social media where it was met with incredulity.

While the idea of selling organs for cash or even auctioning one’s virginity may not be a novel, it certainly isn’t commonly heard of in Kenya.

As far as the kidney is concerned, donations are not uncommon given it is possible to live on one, provided it’s healthy.

The role of the kidneys is to clean the blood as it were and where one has suffered renal failure, they would be forced to undergo dialysis for several hours a week or risk death.

The test for Mdoe, should he go through it, would be to find a match. The organ would need to be compatible with the recipient due to the risk of rejection.

The legality of selling one’s organs it also in question with such transactions usually the preserve of the shadowy world that is the black market.