Fears over biotech foods shot down
What you need to know:
- They criticised Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia for allegedly ignoring opinion from the National Biosafety Authority — the lead government agency in regulating GM products — in favour of a task force report whose composition was ‘biased’.
- But Dr Joel Ochieng of the Kenya University Biotechnology Consortium, maintained that the country had the capacity to develop and manage processes for detecting, testing and assessing the safety of genetically-modified foods.
- It was improper for the CS to claim that the country was ill-equipped to deal with the technology when the government has invested a lot of resources in training of biotechnology experts, the scientists said.
Scientists have differed with the government on claims that the country lacked the capacity to regulate use of Genetically Modified Organisms.
The group is mainly from public universities and want the development, trade and consumption of genetically modified foods allowed.
They criticised Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia for allegedly ignoring opinion from the National Biosafety Authority — the lead government agency in regulating GM products — in favour of a task force report whose composition was ‘biased’.
The taskforce insists in its report that the technology was not bad but what was lacking and causing controversy was a regulatory framework, which he said does not address the safety of foods.
“Controversy is due to lack of a procedure for testing products for human consumption,” said Prof Kihumbu Thairu, who chaired the taskforce.
He faulted biosafety authority for concentrating so much on handling of the foods as opposed to their safety for human consumption.
But Dr Joel Ochieng of the Kenya University Biotechnology Consortium, maintained that the country had the capacity to develop and manage processes for detecting, testing and assessing the safety of genetically-modified foods.
In a statement to the media yesterday, the scientists said the existing infrastructural, human and legal capacity for regulation of the GM foods in Kenya, meets international standards.
“The safe application of the technology has been demonstrated in human medicine, where it is used to produce various drugs such as insulin for managing diabetes, and vaccines,” Dr Ochieng said.
It was improper for the CS to claim that the country was ill-equipped to deal with the technology when the government has invested a lot of resources in training of biotechnology experts, the scientists said.
The current ban on the modified foods, they noted, has negatively affected food security, human health, trade and research and Kenya risks being isolated in world trade as many countries shift to the technology to cut on production costs.
