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{
    "id": 1185151,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1185151/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 760,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Kamar",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 33,
        "legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
        "slug": "margaret-kamar"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. I listened very keenly to the previous speaker and never got his conclusion because he mixed science. I will start from the history of banning of the GMOs in Kenya. I was privileged to serve in the 10th Parliament together with Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale. When the ban took place, I was the one who seconded the Motion tabled by the Minister of Health, Hon. Beth Mugo. At that time, I was the Minister of Science and Technology where the National Biosafety Authority was based. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we banned the GMO because of unpreparedness. My contribution will be on how prepared we are to receive GMOs and whether we are ready. Do we just import or not? At that time, we had a meeting with Hon. Beth Mugo and we discussed the issue which was on health. At that time, we had a meeting with Sen. Beth Mugo and we discussed the issue, which was health issues. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we have borrowed this idea of banning Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) from the European Union (EU). At that time, the EU had banned GMOs because of the fear that there was potential cause of harm to both human beings and livestock and no researcher, had given any conclusive evidence that there was no harm. Real facts and science were still being undertaken. We had our own National Biosafety Authority which was under the Ministry which I was heading. I asked them one question: Are we ready? They said, no, for the reason that we had very good scientists but there was no research fund that could enable them test all the things we were talking about. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as we are talking, 16 countries in the EU have banned GMOs; these are Germany, France, Lativia, Netherlands and all those foods producing countries, including Belgium. The reason these countries have banned GMOs is that they have not managed to conduct enough research to ascertain the safety of these foods. The biggest question is; how ready are we as a country? Have we prepared ourselves? At that time, when I seconded, I gave a proposal that came from our research institutions and in particular the National Biosafety Authority that there is need to pump in funds for research so that our scientists can give us conclusive research on whether these products are really harmful or not."
}