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{
    "id": 1184266,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1184266/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 301,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Funyula, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Ojiambo Oundo",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this emotive debate. I support the Motion and appreciate the Mover for bringing it to the House. The issue of GMOs has been debated for many years. It has since morphed from one level to another. We have progressively transited from traditional seeds to hybrid seeds and we are now talking about GMOs of various scales and types. Probably, this informed the decision by the National Assembly to pass the Biosafety Act No.2 of 2009 that sets out the ground rules, processes and approaches as we embrace bio-technology agriculture to ensure that GMOs are registered in this country. The question of safety of GMOs and other related issues are clearly covered in the Act. There was a ban on GMOs in 2010 that was issued by the then Minister, Hon. Beth Mugo. That ban existed for all those years until 2019, when there was a partial lifting in respect of BT Cotton. It was only when the Kenya Kwanza Government came to power that the ban that was put in place in 2010 was lifted. The question we beg to ask and which needs answers as soon as possible is whether the lifting of the ban complies with the provisions of the Biosafety Act No.2 of 2009. Has there been adequate research? Has there been adequate safeguards to basically solve this problem? In the wider context of this debate, is allowing GMOs of any nature a panacea for the perpetual food security challenge that we experience in this country? Is it a response to climate change? What are the positives and negatives? Are we able to feed this world with traditional ways of food production and agriculture? These are the questions that the scientists should strive to respond to. Are we safe or not? As it stands now, there has been no communication from the authority that established the Biosafety Act in respect of the security and safety of the food that we are talking about here. I have listened to the debate so far and the issue seems to be getting muddled up between commercial interests of maize farmers and the safety of imported maize. It would, probably, have been right to allow the two Motions to run separately so that we can discuss the issue of safety of GMOs so as to separate it from the issue of commercial interests of maize farmers. It is on record that Kenyans are dying of hunger. It is on record that people in many parts of this country are experiencing severe food deficiency. It is embarrassing that there are places where we have abundant food that is rotting. We have cases where staple food like maize is being hoarded with the hope of getting better prices. In a liberalised economy, we must be alive to the tenets and theories of supply and demand vis-a-vis pricing. Any consumer would prefer more for less. For sure, it is unfair to hoard maize or fail to offer farmers good prices so that they can release the maize to the market in order for us to feed starving Kenyans. I urge farmers wherever they are to go back to the theory of production. Produce what you can and sell in the market based on the market prices. As it stands, even our colleagues here have admitted to have hoarded maize. The days when we could punish such behaviour are long gone but, probably, we need to re-introduce such measures so that we can punish those who hoard maize and cause food crisis. Hoarding of The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for informationpurposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}