Prime
Lessons from recent Kenyan court ruling
Mr Michael J. Ssali
What you need to know:
- Uganda is one of the leading countries in Africa in biotechnology research and it has state of the art GM research laboratories built and equipped by the government and its development partners.
Mid this month the Monitor published an article in which it was reported that a Kenyan court dismissed a lawsuit filed by some activist groups against the government of Kenya challenging the government’s decision to allow the importation and cultivation of Genetically Modified (GM) crops in the country as one of the steps to alleviate the country’s food crisis.
In the lawsuit the activists claimed that there had not been sufficient consultation of all stakeholders before the government took the decision and that GM crops were potentially harmful to human health and the environment.
However, the court presided over by Oscar Angote ruled that the activists had failed to produce evidence that GM crops importation and cultivation had any potential harm to the environment and to human health.
He dismissed the case. About two years ago Kenya, which is our immediate neighbour, had allowed the cultivation of GM cotton with a view to boost its fabrics and apparel industry.
Other countries such as India, China, South Africa and several others across the globe are already benefiting from growing GM cotton. About a year ago Kenya lifted a 12-year- old-ban that it had slapped against GMOs.
Uganda is one of the leading countries in Africa in biotechnology research and it has state of the art GM research laboratories built and equipped by the government and its development partners.
The idea is to use biotechnology to support social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture in Uganda.
The country is faced with the challenge of feeding a quickly increasing population and incurable crop diseases wiping out staples such as cassava, banana, and potatoes, among many others.
The country’s cotton production is below its potential thanks to the boll worm pest that has reduced cotton cultivation because of the high cost of pesticides to fight the boll warms.
Our scientists under National Agricultural Research Organisation (Naro) have come up with amazing successes in alleviation of many of the crop diseases and drought challenges through GM research but our farmers have no permission to grow such crops.
The 10th Parliament of Uganda passed the Biotechnology and Biosafety Bill which was expected to turn into the law to regulate GM technology and is actually the international requirement for any country to grow or import GM crops. But the mystery is that to date Uganda does not have that law.
Mr Michael Ssali is a veteran journalist,
[email protected]
