Youth issue government ultimatum to drop ban on GM food
Cleopa Mailu, the Cabinet Secretary for Health, at Afya House in Nairobi on January 24, 2017. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
In a petition by the group dubbed "Youth Senate" from all counties, they have also asked the government to invest in genetic engineering.
They also want the government to instruct the National Environment Management Authority to release permits to conduct national performance trials of genetically modified maize.
The group has said it will mobilise stakeholders and demand to hold discussions with President Uhuru Kenyatta on the country’s position on genetic engineering as a technology.
They have also threatened to demand the immediate disbandment of biotechnology regulatory institutions such as the National Biosafety Authority which are currently funded by taxpayers.
A group of young people has issued a 30-day ultimatum to the government to drop the ban on genetically modified food.
The youth threatened to mobilise current and former students of biotechnology to seek compensation for “wasted time”. In a petition by the group dubbed "Youth Senate" from all counties, they have also asked the government to invest in genetic engineering.
They also want the government to instruct the National Environment Management Authority to release permits to conduct national performance trials of genetically modified maize.
The group has said it will mobilise stakeholders and demand to hold discussions with President Uhuru Kenyatta on the country’s position on genetic engineering as a technology.
They have also threatened to demand the immediate disbandment of biotechnology regulatory institutions such as the National Biosafety Authority which are currently funded by taxpayers.
“Should the government fail to commit to deliver on these genuine demands within 30 days, we the Youth Senate will immediately initiate this process,” said their spokesperson Ken Mwangi.
The group has also vowed to seek compensation since they claim to have invested their money and time in studying a course that has been rendered worthless following the ban that was issued five years ago.
“Kenyan universities and colleges have continued to enrol and graduate hundreds of biotechnology students whose careers, dignity and basic survival are at stake if potential fields of employment...are deliberately killed,” read their petition, which was presented on Tuesday to the Health ministry’s offices and the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation.
