Kenyan govt wants to impose GMO's by force

Kenya govt wants to impose GMOs ‘by force’

By JOHN MBARIA (email the author)
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posted Sunday, October 5 2008 at 10:51

The grand scheme to introduce genetically modified foods into Kenya seemed to shift into top gear after the Ministry of Agriculture launched a campaign last month to make the country appreciate them.

First, Minister for Agriculture, William Ruto, who has on several occasions publicly expressed his support for the introduction of GM foods into the country, launched the National Biotechnology Awareness Strategy last month.

According to a statement Ruto sent to the press, the strategy was aimed at offering Kenyans “accurate and reliable information and knowledge” about such branches of biotechnology as tissue culture, molecular breeding and genetic modification.

“This will enable Kenyans to make informed decisions and be involved in determining the pace of adoption of biotechnology in the country,” he said.

However, Ruto went ahead to state that Kenya will embrace GMOs, making it appear the government had launched the awareness campaign merely to state its pro-GMO stance.

This has led to fresh fears that the government has irrevocably decided on introduction, cultivation and commercialisation of GMOs in the country.

Ruto had earlier, on August 14, said he has never come across any proof that GMOs are risky to human health and stated that it was the height of irony for people to continue opposing GMO proliferation when the country has been importing food from countries that grow genetically modified foods.

Indeed, the Assistant Minister for Basic Education, Prof Ayiecho Olweny, confessed last month that the government has been importing GM-foods. He was addressing a luncheon organised in Nairobi by key pro-GM lobbyists under the auspices of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa.

“All this noise about GMOs… is politics (and) politics is more dangerous than science… We are eating some of them already,” he said.

Prof Olweny also revealed that he and fellow legislators had worked hard to defeat a Bill brought to parliament last year by a former Saboti MP, Davis Nakitare, which had asked the government to ban GMOs in Kenya.

The Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology has also been preparing to take back to parliament a Bill that was heavily criticised last year for failing to address the concerns of farmers and consumers and for merely seeking to create the necessary legal framework for the introduction of GMOs in Kenya.

The EastAfrican has learnt from sources at parliament that the revised Bill was recently presented before two House committees — Agriculture, Land and Natural Resources as well as the one on Education, Science and Technology.

Source: The East African
Author: John Mbaria

According to this article, some say there has been a lack of transparency surrounding Kenya's draft Biosafety Bill, which was developed in 2005, and others are calling for the bill to be withdrawn altogether. Maurice Makoloo, a Kenyan environmental lawyer, told the East African newspaper that Kenyan environmental law requires any proposed law or policy to be subjected to an environmental impact assessment, which would give all concerned parties a chance to "interrogate its contents." This has not happened with the Biosafety Bill, and Makoloo said, "most researchers, lawyers and other stakeholders have been kept in the dark." A group of small-scale farmers organizations, faith-based groups, and other groups has recently presented a memorandum to Kenyan Minister of Science and Technology Noah Wekesa calling for the bill to be completely withdrawn. The groups also called for a national exercise to collect views and incorporate them into the bill, according to the article. Gerald Ngatia, a member of the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition comments, "Our fear is that we will end up losing our traditional seed varieties and get hooked to expensive varieties from Monsanto and other international biotechnology companies." Justus Lavi, treasurer for the Kenya Small Scale Farmers Forum (KESSFF), asserts Kenyan farmers are likely to lose the European export market if they adopt genetically modified (GM) crops. The article says that the draft Biosafety Bill "appears harmless" "on the surface" because it simply provides a mechanism for biotechnology regulation. The article can be viewed online at the link below.

The original article may still be available at www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/News/News09070718.htm