Twenty-two-year-old Amon Kipruto Mely thought that by selling his kidney, he would start a new, better life. Life in a village in western Kenya, had been hard for him after the COVID pandemic. He's been struggling to find a steady income, moving from one job to the next — at a car dealer, a construction site and elsewhere.

Then, one day, a friend told him about a quick and easy way to earn $6,000 (€5,300). "He told me selling my kidney would be a good deal," said Amon. It sounded like a stroke of fortune, but it led him into a dark network of exploitation, desperation and regret.

This report is the result of a months-long collaborative investigation conducted by German media outlets Der Spiegel, ZDF, and DW, who together traced the paths of organ sellers and buyers, analyzed documents, spoke with whistleblowers and medical professionals, and uncovered how an international network — spanning from a hospital in Kenya to a shadowy agency that attracted organ recipients from Germany — exploited vulnerable people at both ends: The young, desperate for money, and the old, desperate for a life-saving organ.

Amon Kipruto Mely was introduced to a middleman who organised transport to Mediheal Hospital in the city of Eldoret, western Kenya. There, Amon says he was received by Indian doctors who handed him documents in English, a language he didn't understand.

He was not informed of any health risks, he said. "They did not explain anything to me. The one who had taken me pointed at people around us and said: Look, they all donated, and they are even going back to work."

After the operation, he was only paid $4,000 instead of the promised $6,000. From it, he bought a phone and a car that quickly broke down. Soon after, his health worsened. He became dizzy and weak and eventually fainted at home. At the hospital, his mother, Leah Metto, was shocked to learn that her son had sold his kidney. "They are making money through young children like Amon," she said.

Amon's story appears to be one of many. Willis Okumu, a Nairobi-based researcher of organized crime at the Institute of Security Studies in Africa, has spoken with several young men who told him they had sold their kidneys in the town of Oyugis, 180 kilometers (112 miles) southwest of Eldoret. "For a fact, this is organized crime," he said. Okumu estimates that up to a hundred young men in Oyugis alone may have........

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