MPs endorse blood donation, handling Bill

Blood donations and handling will significantly change after the National Assembly passed the Kenya National Blood Transfusion Service (LNBTS) Bill, 2020

Lawmakers unanimously voted for the Bill, under which clearance from the Health Cabinet secretary.

If signed into law by President Uhuru Kenyatta, the Bill also imposes a three-year prison term on entities that sell blood without the express authority of the CS.

“Any person who collects, stores, issues, distributes or otherwise trades in blood and blood products in contravention of provisions of this Act commits an offence and shall be liable, upon conviction, to a fine not exceeding Sh1 million or imprisonment to a term not exceeding three years or to both,” reads the Bill.

The proposed law, sponsored by Murang’a Woman Representative Sabina Chege, also provides a legal framework for activities related to blood donation, testing, processing, safeguarding, transfusion and quality control.

The Bill defines blood products as a therapeutic part of blood intended for transfusion - including red cells, granulocytes, platelets, plasma derivatives, circulating progenitor cells, bone marrow progenitor cells and umbilical cord progenitor cells - that is prepared through whole blood methods or by aphaeresis.

The Bill requires the Health CS to make regulations within a year of its enactment to guide imports and exports of blood and blood products, blood donor qualifications, blood banking, distribution, transportation, clinical use and haemovigilance (surveillance procedures for blood transfusion chain).

The proposed legislation also seeks to plug loopholes that have turned the once flourishing blood transfusion services into a lucrative business targeting rich patients while the majority poor suffer.

Tongaren MP Eseli Simiyu lamented the casualness with which blood issues are handled in Kenya and stressed the need for the National Assembly to prioritise the legislation.

He said that in developed countries, blood transfusion services (BTS) operate as independent organs working with ambulances “because blood is an essential commodity”.

“It’s a shame that here, the BTS do not even have equipment to separate various blood components. This means that we cannot save lives,” he said.