Lawyers protest lifting of GMO ban
By George.Kebaso, January 19, 2023Lawyers yesterday waded into the debate on the lifting of the ban on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) as the Law Society of Kenya termed it ill-advised.
They called for the restoration of the decade-long ban that existed since 2012, arguing that the science of GMOs is still largely not understood by a vast majority.
LSK’s latest position, outlined at the onset of a three-day capacity building and awareness workshop on GMOs, hosted by the National Assembly Committee on Agriculture, seemed to inject new vigour in the opposition to the lifting of the ban.
LSK president Eric Theuri called for the precautionary principle to be employed by the government to facilitate a proper evaluation of the GM products.
“The science in question is not clear. So we as LSK want to agree with various presentations that have been tabled today and in previous discussions, arguing against the lifting of the ban on GMOs.
“We, therefore, call for the return of the ban; remain on the side of caution until the science is clear,” he said.
Theuri, who spoke after LSK council member Mwaura Kibata and Brown Kairaria, the secretary, said; “We must hold until we reach that side where we are clear.”
He said it will be irresponsible if the country moves forward without the necessary legal and scientific framework to ensure that if GMOs are allowed; they can be identified, controlled and can be mitigated.
“In the absence, therefore, of those three critical assurances, then the proposal of the LSK is that we must hold until we get to that place where we are sure that the science is ok and if deployed, and there’s any harm, they can be traced and mitigated,” he pointed out.
He said the need for precaution in the area of GMO science is paramount. This is even as a section of the Committee appeared to hold a position similar to the Cabinet decision that saw the ban on GMOs lifted in October last year.
The Committee’s chairman, John Kanyuithia Mutunga argued that the country has never been ready for GMOs even when stakeholder consultations kicked off in 2002 on the need for a law on Biosafety, cited as a fundamental tool for compliance with requirements of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.
“In 2002, we were not ready, came 2007 and we were still not prepared for this science. In 2012, it was the same thing. Fast forward, in 2022 we are saying, we wait. When is this going to end while other countries are moving forward?” Mutunga argued.
He further cautioned against injecting activism into the debate on GMO.
“We should not be afraid of science or be afraid to move forward. The country is struggling for food and we want to get our scientists to explain this properly instead of scaring Kenyans by spreading false information on GMOs,” he said.
He said the decision was a culmination of huge lobbying from scientists and other interested stakeholders such as the animal feed manufacturers who had complained that livestock in the country were competing with human beings for it.
“Therefore, the lifting of this ban was meant to enable animal feed manufacturers to import GM grains, not for open cultivation as being peddled around, but to supplement the little that was available, so that people can have sufficient for their diets,” he stated.
The LSK called for immediate reinstatement of the prohibition on open growing and importing of GM foods and seeds is required pending the establishment of a people-driven strategy on the purposeful introduction of GMO into the market.”
Further, the LSK wants the Executive and Parliament to develop necessary policy based on the responsible development of best practices to prevent unintentional transgene transfer.