Biotechnology: Kenya shouldn’t be left out

Kenya comes second after South Africa in adopting new innovations and technologies. It is among the few African nations that identified the modern biotechnology revolution as one of the two major cornerstones of the 21st century socio-economic progress, the other being ICT, which is revolutionising all aspects our lives.

The sceptics have raised concerns about the country’s capacity to handle emerging technologies. Such concerns have watered down the debate about Kenya’s human and infrastructural capacity to handle genetically modified (GM) technology.

Kenya has a wealth of trained scientists in biotechnology at its national research institutions, public universities, international research centres, and regulatory agencies. It has made good progress in establishing a functional biosafety system.

The country’s legal and policy frameworks and institutional arrangements for governing biotechnology include the National Biotechnology Development Policy approved in 2006, the Biosafety Act enacted in 2009, and the National Biosafety Authority (NBA) created in 2010.

The authority works in collaboration with various regulatory agencies, as specified in the Biosafety Act. Key among them is the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (Kephis), which plays an important role in the monitoring and regulation of GM crops.

POOL OF BIOTEC EXPERTS

Besides the biosafety officers situated at the country’s entry ports, the authority has a pool of biotech experts. Currently, more than 200 scientists in the public and private sectors are engaged in biotechnology research and development activities countrywide. A large proportion of these scientists — 45 per cent — are employed in the public sector.

Additionally, public universities have well-trained scientists in the fields of biotechnology and biosafety. The Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, for example, has more than 40 biotechnology experts.

Kenyatta University has a state-of-the art plant transformation facility with a biosafety level II greenhouse. The University of Nairobi’s Centre for Biotechnology and Bioinformatics is a virtual research centre to train graduate students.

All these are complemented by international research organisations hosted in the country. For instance, The BecA Hub at the International Livestock Research Institute has a modern plant growth facility and seven modern laboratories for livestock, crop, and microbial research.

Kenya would miss out on the biotechnology revolution if our experts are not given a chance to localise the technology that is already benefiting other countries.

When the ban on importation of genetically modified foods came into force, it was seen as a timely precautionary move pending scientific verification of the findings in a European research paper that linked GM maize to cancer in rats. However, the continuing ban is likely to erode the gains made in science and innovation.

In order to fully benefit from this technology, Kenyan experts should be given support and space to deliver the potential benefits of GM technology. In addition, the government ministries concerned need to give leadership in the GM technology debate.

Dr Oduor is the chairman of Kenya University Biotechnology Consortium and lecturer at Kenyatta University’s Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology. [email protected]