State Department for Cooperatives Principal Secretary (PS) Patrick Kilemi has called on the cooperative movement in Kenya to pull their numbers together and assist the country in boosting blood reserves through blood donation. The PS commended the Cooperative Alliance of Kenya (CAK) for organising a blood donation exercise annually in the build up to the Ushirika day celebrations. Speaking on Wednesday at the Kencom bus terminus during Ushirika blood drive exercise, Kilemi said that the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that we should have blood pints reserves equal to at least one percent of the population. ‘With Kenya having an estimated population of 52 million people, we should have 520,000 pints of blood in our blood banks,’ said the PS. He added that the blood donation at the Kencom bus terminus is targeting to collect 2,000 pints of blood, an increase from the 700 pints collected last year. ‘My appeal to all cooperators in the country is to donate blood from wherever they are as a commemoration of the Ushirika day and also help the country in achieving the target of 520,000 pints,’ said Kilemi. The PS said that in the Kenya Kwanza manifesto, the cooperative movement is the anchor where they are enabling aggregation and they are going back to the days of independence dubbed ‘harambee’ where people came together. ‘The government is looking at the productive aspects of our nation because due to the small holder nature of our people, the only way we can have viable production units is to come together. As the cooperative movement we are aggregating all the value chains into cooperatives so that we have viable production units in marketing and savings,’ said Kilemi. The PS said that they are looking at the key value chains that is dairy, cotton, maize among others. Cooperative Alliance of Kenya (CAK) Chairman Macloud Malonza said that the blood donation drive is a precursor to the Ushirika day celebrations to be held on July 1, 2023 as he encouraged cooperative movement members across the country to donate blood as a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Malonza said that they want to support the Kenya Kwanza manifesto on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by making blood available to the population. ‘We have around seven million members across the country and I would like to urge them wherever they are to donate blood in the spirit of togetherness the same way we come together and put our savings in the Sacco’s and assist each other,’ said Malonza. Kenya Tissue and Transplant Authority (KTTA) Regional manager Festus Koech said that last year as a country we approached 75 percent of our blood needs with a target of reaching 80 percent this year. ‘The much-needed blood groups are the rare blood groups that is the rhesus negative which are A negative, B negative, O negative and AB negative because less than two percent of Kenyans have these particular blood groups and that is why when we have a shortage of these blood groups. We see appeals being made for Kenyans to go to the nearest blood donation stations so that they can donate to save lives,’ said Koech. James Wamugunda who works at the judiciary as a legal researcher said that this was his fourth time to donate blood which he started after a relative needed blood as they were undergoing an operation and realised the need for donating blood to save people’s lives. ‘We came here with my colleagues from the judiciary since we are informed that the country is in need of blood and I would like to urge members of the public to come and donate blood because there are people who are in need,’ said Wamugunda.

Source: Kenya News Agency