Scientists are now warning that Kenya is at high risk of being left behind in the adoption of modern biotechnology compared to other African nations, due to unending litigation, which poses a danger to ongoing research. 

Prof Richard Oduor, Registrar, research, innovation, and outreach at Kenyatta University, in a presentation during the induction of the National Biosafety Authority (NBA) Board of Directors, dubbed ‘Introduction to Modern Biotechnology’, said students who have pursued and others who continue to study biotechnology have been thrown into uncertainty. 

“Since 2012, we have been going back and forth on the issue of GMOs. Researchers and scholars are now tired of these litigations, some of which are sponsored by people whose countries have already adopted GMOs but are opposed to Africa having the same technologies,” lamented Prof Oduor, also a founder of the university’s Biotechnology Consortium. 

He observed that those opposed to the adoption of the technology have cited medical risks, population risk, neo-colonialism, government goodwill, negative public perception, and fear of cultural erosion, which he termed as outrageous. 

Modern technologies 

“Just imagine, the United States of America, which values its citizens, has adopted modern technology. Do you believe it can embrace a technology that will harm its population?”  the don asked. 

He said modern biotechnology has been applied in health sectors such as vaccines for Ebola, diabetes, Gaucher’s disease, and lately, COVID-19. 

The use of modern technologies includes genetic engineering to improve crop yield and enhance biomass for bio-commodities, as well as improving local medicinal plants for increased production of therapeutic secondary metabolites. 

African nations that have embraced GMOs are Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Sudan, Malawi, South Africa, and Eswatini, and have used it to develop better-yielding, disease-resistant, and drought-tolerant crop varieties. 

The acting Director, Biosafety Research and Compliance at the National Biosafety Authority, Josphat Muchiri, maintained that Kenya has a well-established legal, regulatory and institutional framework. 

Kenya signed the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 2000 and ratified it in 2003, with the National Biosafety Authority as the national focal point. 

This is an international agreement that aims to ensure the regulation of GMOs to ensure their safety to humans, animals, and the environment.