GMOs: Science moves from the lab to the farm

By Dann Okoth

Ms Sarah Mueni, a peasant farmer from Kibwezi, has not heard about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and she cannot fathom the intricate science behind the concept.

Ironically, Mueni lives just five kilometres from the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari), Kiboko centre, the country’s first GM maize open field trials site.

Across in Naivasha next to a giant commercial farming enterprise where aspects of agricultural biotechnology are used, Mr Njoroge Karanja, a pastoralist, is just as ignorant.

For starters, it was difficult to pose the question to him for lack of appropriate Kiswahili for GMO. The only other language he speaks is Kiswahili.

"Bado sikia hiyo (I have never heard of it)," he says.

For Mueni, the ‘stuff’ would come in handy if it could alleviate the suffering of her family in the throes of starvation, thanks to an acute food shortage occasioned by prolonged drought. "Whatever that stuff is, if its food let the Government supply it to help alleviate hunge," she says.

The foregoing suggests that the hype about agricultural biotechnology to improve food production in Kenya is a media creation. The technology is widely misunderstood.

Of more concern is the dearth of information among ordinary farmers and consumers about issues pertaining to biotechnology in agriculture, health, industry and environment.

Already, trials of transgenic crops — plants that contain genes from different species — are going on in different parts of the country and GMO foods dot the supermarket shelves.

In 2007, Consumer Information Network raised the red flag over possible cultivation of GM maize by local farmers following the proliferation of GMOs in the country via food aid shipments and closer links between farmers and multinational seed companies with possible negative consequences to the environment.

Kenya has enacted a law that regulates the biotechnology sector, a move experts say paves way for proper adoption of the technology.

The Biosafety Act, which regulates activities involving GMOs, also establishes the National Biosafety Authority with the mandate to exercise general supervision and control over the transfer, handling and use of GMOs with a view to ensuring safety of human and animal health.

Dr David Wafula of African Centre of the International Services for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) says the new law has laid down procedures to ensure food safety and environmental protection.

"The statutes provide that before any product is released to the environment it must undergo risk assessment by the National Environmental Management Authority," he says.

Section 20 (1) of the Act, further states that a person shall not import into Kenya a genetically modified organism without the written approval of the authority.

Moreover eight other regulatory agencies will oversee compliance with the law, which unfortunately brings into focus the issue of conflict.

Liable to fine

The law provides that anyone who contravenes the provisions of the Act is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding Sh20 million, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years or both.

But critics have poked holes into the Act, claiming it did not address relevant issues concerning food safety and the environment.

Mr Samuel Ochieng of Consumer Information Network says the law does not adequately address consumer concerns.

"Consumer interests are not monolithic. There has to be benchmarks to guarantee safety. There has to be sufficient infrastructure to test products and in case of a problem there has to be a follow up procedure," he says.

He faults the Act for not clearly stating how information would be disseminated to the people to empower them to know their rights. "People need information. They need to know what should be labelled and how. That Act as it is does not make it mandatory for labelling of GMOs," he says.

He says the Kenya Bureau of Standards is developing standards for labelling GMOs adding that the standard requires that only products that contain more than five per cent GMO should be labelled.

"This threshold is very high, in other countries the ratio is one per cent. More it should not be five per cent of the whole product but rather five per cent of each ingredient," he says.

And the taxpayer may also be forced to shoulder any costs arising from any damages to the environment since the Acts states that the Authority will be the one liable should anything go wrong. Wafula admits that there are huge infrastructural and human resource gaps that need to be filled before the technology is relayed to the public.