Kenya: Valentine's Day Walk for Kidney Disease Awareness

Immaculate Karambu

The Kenya Kidney and Lupus Foundation will be using this year's Valentines Day celebrations to create public awareness on the need for organ donation as a measure to curb surging cases of kidney complications.

The foundation is planning a 20km walk in Nairobi with participants from schools, health care staff, potential kidney donors, beneficiaries of kidney transplants and the general public.

"We want to experience love in a bigger way. It takes much love to donate an organ to someone else and this is the kind of concern we will be encouraging during the walk," said Jean Banda the executive director.

With the World Kidney Day to be marked on March 10, the walk lays a foundation for highlighting the plight of victims of kidney failure.

In Kenya, health experts have often raised concern over the lack of capacity to handle kidney ailments.

At the National Referral Hospital, 12 dialysis machines are fully functional at the Renal Unit.

This capacity does not correspond to the number of kidney patients, further raising questions about the country's ability to handle kidney complications.

But even as past concerns seemed to focus on policy issues surrounding national strategies to address kidney diseases and regulations governing organ donations, health experts see the need to adopt safe lifestyles as a more sustainable approach to fight such complications.