By Duncan MBOYAH

THE Kenya government is likely to allow genetically modified products to enter into the country when the biosafety and biotechnology bill becomes law by the end of the year.
According to the minister for agriculture, Kipruto Kirwa, the country is ready to embrace the new technology to help boost food production that has been dwindling in the past few years, forcing most of the population to look for food aid all year round.
He warns that the country risks being left behind in the new technology and might later adopt it at a high cost.
“Biotechnology is here with us to assist us improve our food production and also helps us multiply other crops,” the minister said when he opened the Kenya Plant Health Inspections Service (KEPHIS) headquarters in Nairobi recently.
This announcement came in the wake of two major workshops that were organized by the African Biotechnology Stakeholders Forum (ABSF) to help enlighten Kenyan Members of Parliaments on the importance of adopting genetically modified products.
The minister assured environmentalists that strict measures would be put in place to ensure that the imported products are safe for the public consumption.
The government is currently issuing licences for laboratory and controlled tests of transgenic crops.
Last year, the government approved the importation of genetically engineered materials, but strictly for greenhouse trials.
Kenya will be the second country in East Africa after Uganda to allow the importation of genetically modified foods.
Tanzania has not been left behind either, as it has formed a task force to look into the modalities of approving the importations.
Early last month, the government of Tanzania appealed to its foreign envoys to seek advice from the foreign countries to help pave way for adopting genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Addressing the envoys in the country’s northern city of Arusha, the minster for agriculture and food security, Charles Keenja, said that China, the United States, Britain, India and South Africa could help to develop regulations on GMO importation.
“GMOos would soon become fashionable, in the way computers are today, and whether we like it or not, we are going to adopt this technology in future,” he said.
The ambassadors meeting was held after the parliamentarians late last year blocked plans by the government to allow GM seeds and crops importation.
In approving the importation of these products, Ugandan authorities argue that genetically modified maize and other food products may be safe for human consumption, contrary to what activists opposed to their consumption advocate.
According to Uganda’s director-general of the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), Dr. Otim Nape, the foods will strictly be used for human consumption and not for planting.
Uganda’s announcement was preceded by its President Yoweri Museveni’s appeal to scientists last year to apply the technology in helping to improve the country’s crop and animal breeds to boost food production.
Museveni, in what looked like a surprise to many people who attended the opening of a laboratory at the NARO headquarters, took the opportunity to underscore the importance of genetic engineering and its potential for solving some of the country’s agricultural problems.
If finally approved in Kenya, the country will only be ensuring compliance through the legislation governing GMOs in accordance with the United Nations-brokered Cartegena Protocol on biosafety or the African model law on biosafety, which became operational in September last year following its ratification allowing countries to trade in GMO’s.
The protocol that was adopted by the member governments of the Convention on Biological Diversity in January 2000, sets out the first comprehensive regulatory system for ensuring the safe transfer, handling and use of GMOs, with specific focus on their movements across national boundaries.
According to the chairman of the National Biosafety Committee, J.K. Ngeno, the National Council for Science and Technology has developed the bill, which is at the moment at the attorney-general’s office.