Kenya: Reject GMOs Bill, Says Lobby
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Nation (Nairobi)
8 October 2008
Posted to the web 9 October 2008
Gatonye Gathura
Nairobi
President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga have been urged not to allow the adoption of the proposed law on biotechnology in its current form.
In a full page advertisement on Tuesday, a global coalition of development organisations warned that the proposed Bill could expose Kenyans to genetically altered organisms without the necessary safety provisions.
The 53 organisations, under the Food and Water Watch, are from most parts of the world, apart from Asia and Kenya. Their headquarters is in Washington DC.
They were reacting to Agriculture minister William Ruto's efforts to have the Biosafety Bill 2008 adopted by Parliament.
The group now wants the President and the PM to intervene and recall the Bill for redrafting because of what they call "several troubling provisions".
They argue that the Bill does not offer adequate safeguards against possible risks that could be posed by the new technology and that the public has not been adequately represented in the process.
They also say the country is blindly relying on experiences of other countries with GMOs, "while failing to consider that their use or any other technology is different in every region."
The proposed Bill, they say, fails to put up structures that allow for careful evaluation and regulation of these organisms.
For these reasons, the group tells the President and Prime Minister, with notations to various ministers including Mr Ruto, to send the Bill back to the drawing board.
Since taking over the agriculture docket, Mr Ruto has come out strongly in support of adopting agricultural biotechnology.
"We see some people coming to our continent to preach anti-biotechnology message while back at home their food is produced through the technology.
This leaves many in a dilemma while suffering continues," he recently told a regional workshop in Nairobi on development of a bio-safety communication strategy for the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).
Mr Ruto claimed most issues fronted by anti-biosafety crusaders lacked merit and urged African nations to consider biotechnology as a possible strategy of tackling low productivity.
Relevant Links
"I believe the best way to remove poverty and food insecurity is to adopt the adequate technology. If there is no proof of harm from GMOs, we should adopt them because they have a scientific backing," the minister said.
Read comments. Write your own.
|
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Copyright © 2008 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Make allAfrica.com your home page
|
RSS Feed
Sign up for FREE daily 'top headlines' by email >> | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | My Account | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
