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{
    "id": 177247,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/177247/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 217,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Prof. Olweny",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Education",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 122,
        "legal_name": "Patrick Ayiecho Olweny",
        "slug": "patrick-olweny"
    },
    "content": " Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, let us leave that alone. This Bill is very dear to my heart because once upon a time this was my business. All the hon. Members and Kenyans who are opposed to GMOs or any material developed using modern technology, because to me that is what genetic modification is all about; modern bio-technology, are they sure that they are now wearing cotton fabrics made from gene cotton? Those who are opposed to this Bill, are they sure that we do not have GMO material in this country already and there is no law to control it? If today, I brought GMO material in this country, how will you take me to court? There is no law! Today, we are making the law. That is what this Bill is all about. If you read from Section 18 of the Bill, it tells you clearly that Prof. Olweny, who claims to be a scientist, will not be allowed to bring in any GMO material in this country without proper permission. If I do, I will be taken to court. One of the roles of Parliament is to make the legal environment and legal structure for use of GMO technology. We are developing the legal environment for containment, importation, handling and exportation. If anybody wants to pass with GMO material in this country, there is a law. As Mr. Samoei said, a few minutes ago, so many people are criss-crossing our country with GMO materials and we cannot take them to court because there is no law. That is why I am requesting my colleagues to support the Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology. Let us support this Bill so that we have a way of dealing with GMO material because today, we do not have a way of dealing with it. As far as I am concerned, this is very safe. The GMO materials are safe and I am proud to say that I have eaten GMO maize and I have not developed any complications in my life. If anything, I have become more brilliant. So, this Bill is going to ensure that handling of GMO materials is done ethically, safely and legally. Already, this country is 20 years behind the rest of the world in terms of modern technology because we are too slow to embrace modern technology and one of the most modern technology is GMO technology. I am surprised to see that some of the youngest Members of Parliament and people in the civil society are the ones blocking modern technology. It means that since we left the university, it has retrogressed a little; it is not teaching students modern things so that they can embrace modern things. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the history of modern biotechnology dates back to the 19th Century when there was this man called Mendel who was a monk and was in the church. When he came up with the idea of genetics, people really opposed him until his ideas were rediscovered in the 20th Century. That is what has been developed into plant breeding and all of us today grow hybrid maize. Hybrid maize is a development of breeding technology and GMO is an advancement of breeding. So, we are actually not going out of what Mendel developed. Any church goer who is opposed to the Biosafety Bill should actually be told what Gregor Mendel did, in fact, with the hand of God. That man used to work in the church. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, we are complaining about GMOs which is modernised biotechnology and yet we use yeast to brew beer. How do you get the product for brewing? It is through biotechnology. All that is biotechnology. You are complaining that you are going to die and develop whatever diseases and yet you are drinking beer. Insulin is a drug from December 2, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3761 bacteria using microbiosis noddles. I think almost 70 per cent of Members of Parliament here are university graduates. Please, bring in those ideas that you read in university into Parliament to help this country progress."
}