Kenya: Country to Import GMO Maize Despite Opposition
By Henry Neondo
NAIROBI---The African Biodiversity Network (ABN) in partnership with the Unga Revolution (Bunge la Mwananchi) last week held a public demonstration at Jevanjee gardens to challenge the push by industry and the National Biosafety Authority for Kenya to import GMO maize.
The demonstration was in reaction to the recent calls for Kenya to import GMO Maize from South Africa by the Cereal Miller Association.
“Kenyan farmers and consumers reject GM crops because the patented seeds make seed saving illegal. 80 per cent of Africa's small-scale farmers depend on seed saving, so patented crops present a threat to their food security and way of life especially now with the challenges of climate change”, said activists a day to the demo.
However, the demos did achieve the intended purposes as few days later, the agricultural secretary, Dr Wilson Songa went ahead to officially allow importation of GMO maize from South Africa.
Dr Roy Mugiira, head of the National Bio-safety Authority, said traders can start importing genetically modified food including maize as early as this coming week. He said regulations on the importation of GM foods will be gazetted by end of this week. “The regulations will give clear health and environmental guidelines on the foods being imported,” said Dr Mugiira.
He said that the new rules had not been prompted by recent government permission to allowed millers to import GM maize to ease the current shortage of maize.
According to the new regulations, NBA can license importers for up to 10 years provided their products have no negative effects on health or the environment.
Dr Mugiira said authorities in the country of origin like South Africa would certify foods but once in Kenya more tests would be carried out. “All imports will need permits from our bio-safety clearing house which is recognised by the Cartagena protocol,” he said yesterday. Last week acting Minister for Higher Education, Science And Technology Prof Hellen Sambili gazetted the 2009 Biosafety Act.
According to Ann Maina, Advocacy Coordinator, ABN, the push for GM crops in Kenya has not come from the farmers, it has come from the GM companies desperate for new markets in Africa after their wholesale rejection in Europe. Africa is not the place for GM.
Maina said the top-down technological solutions will not solve the many challenges that Kenyan farmers face. “This one-size-fits all solution cannot attend to our varied needs. Instead, we call for collaboration between farmers, scientists and government to ensure that we produce healthy and plentiful food. This “solutions centred” approach and farmer -scientist cooperation has in the past resulted in such innovations like the Katumani breed of maize for drier areas of Kenya and an improvement in food production systems and increased yields in a sustainable way”, she said.
She warns that there is a growing body of scientific evidence to show that GMOs can cause serious damage to health, environment, food production and livelihoods. This recent finding is sending shock waves around the medical and scientific community.”
For example, said Maina, animal feeding trials have shown damage to liver, kidney and pancreas, effects on fertility and stomach bleeding.
A most recent study carried out on pregnant women in Canada found genetically modified insecticidal proteins in their blood streams and in that of their foetus.
The developers of GMOs have always claimed that this is impossible; they have stated that these proteins are broken down in the digestive process and will not be found in the body.
The uncertainties, said Maina have raised a lot of concern among Kenyans as to why we are quick to import GMO maize from South Africa yet we can get GMO Free maize from Malawi and Zambia who have had a bumper harvest in the last season.
“We believe that hunger is not caused by under-production of food, but because people have no money to buy food. Thus it cannot be said that GMOs are the solution to poverty and hunger. Article 43 of the Kenya Constitution affirms that Every Person has a Right to be free from hunger and to have adequate food of acceptable quality. We demand that the Kenyan government recognizes the importance of agroecological practices as the primary farming practice in the country by enacting concrete legislation on it and allocating an annual budget for capacity building of small farmers who want to practice agroecological practices”, said Maina.
Maina demanded that the government, through a concrete policy statement, protects the integrity of agroecological practices and farmer saved seed varieties by banning the introduction of GMOs into the Kenya.
Some of the problematic environmental consequences of GMOs include the development of insect resistance to the pesticides engineered into crops as well as the emergence of new and secondary pests destroying farmers’ crops forcing them to buy and use highly toxic pesticides.
Further, the development of herbicide tolerant weeds are choking farmer’s fields. These weeds can no longer be controlled by modern herbicides, forcing farmers to spray high doses of older more toxic chemicals in an effort to control them. This has disastrous consequences for environmental and human health.
Maina said everything that genetic engineering is claimed to offer can readily be achieved through safer methods such as non-GM breeding, intercropping and creative innovation.
“Our public research institutions must shift their focus back to farmers needs rather than support the agenda of agribusiness, which is to colonise our food and seed chain. We believe that the patenting of seed is deeply unethical and dangerous; it undermines farmers’ rights to save seeds and will make us wholly dependent on corporations in the future”, she said.