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"speaker_name": "Mr. Koech",
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"content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to support this Bill. If you had given my Committee, the Committee on Health, Housing, Labour and Social Welfare and the Committee on Agriculture, Lands and Natural Resources the first chance to contribute, we would have provided a very simple direction. On Thursday 31st July, 2008, the Biosafety Bill (2008) was referred to the Committee on Education, Research and Technology after its First Reading. My Committee has deliberated on this Bill. In our deliberations, we invited experts, researchers and hon. Members to give us the insight and their input into this Bill. We consulted those who mattered most. Those are the experts, researchers, technocrats and our educationists. Listening to my colleagues, at some point I get confused. This is because when computers were introduced to Kenya, which is a technology on its own, of what value could it have added if I consulted my neighbour in the village, who has never even heard and cannot even comprehend what a computer is all about? This is a very important Bill which touches on technology. Therefore, the experts are those who are expected to have been consulted. It is also in this view that we believe that the Ministry, together with the Cabinet must have also consulted widely with the same people. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, we looked at the Bill as a Committee. This Bill is very important for this country. I would wish to request my colleagues, who have any contention, to bring in amendments at the Committee of the whole House Stage. I believe that in so doing, we shall be doing justice to this Bill and providing the leadership that is required by this country. Having deliberated on this, my Committee was in agreement with all the contents and clauses of the Biosafety Bill (2008). In deliberating on this Bill, as a Committee, we took into consideration the fact that the lapsed Biosafety Bill (2007) was deliberated by the Committee on Education, Research and Technology during the Ninth Parliament and whose amendments have been incorporated in the current Biosafety Bill (2008). The Biosafety Bill (2008) seeks to provide a legal framework for the implementation of modern bio-technology development policies, which had been formulated by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology in 2006. The Bill intends to provide a framework for regulating bio-technology, including GMOs. It is also to regulate the development and application of modern bio-technologies for economic development, poverty reduction and wealth creation. It is my contention that the Departmental Committee on Education, Research and Technology agrees to all content and clauses of this Bill, so that we can pass it without amendments. First of all, it is important that, we, as a House, ensure that the misinformation doing the rounds in Kenya today is demystified and corrected for the benefit of this country. It is important to note that the Biosafety Bill is a safety net for this country. We want to ensure, as my colleagues have already mentioned, that Genetically Modified Organisms (GOMs), much of which we are living with, is well regulated. This Bill will introduce the National Biosafety Authority which will regulate this technology. More importantly, looking at the proposals regarding the Management Board, it is all- inclusive. All the interested people are already captured in the proposed board. I would like to mention a few of them. Apart from the Ministry representative, we have the Managing Director of the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS), the Secretary of the National Council for Science and Technology and six other persons appointed by the Minister, of whom three shall be 3770 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES December 2, 2008 experts in biological, environmental and social sciences. This means the proposed board will have the correct experts. It is also important to note that the board shall also have a representative of the interests of consumers. So, the consumers should not get worried. It will also have a representative of the biotechnology industry. So, the safety net provided by this Bill is intended at ensuring that everything that is done regarding GMOs shall be fully informed. We, as a country, are torn between two things. One is to save our country in terms of production. Since this Bill came before this House, I have received a lot of information from the wider society, much which came to me through the current technology of SMS from the local people in our villages. All that they are telling me is that if it is true that we can die of GMOs, it is better to die of GMOs than die of hunger, which is biting this country. I do not believe that we are about to pass a Bill which will be detrimental to our health. Looking at the Bill keenly, it will save this country. At the moment, we are talking about inflated prices of food commodities, high costs of living, et cetera . We are talking about wanting to improve our production and livestock. Sometimes I get confused when a Minister in the Ministry of Livestock Development, where we are doing a lot of breeding in this country, can oppose such a Bill. It is true that through breeding, we are able to have a lot of animals and save this country. It is true that through the same science, we are now able to produce more milk than yesteryears. All that we are saying regarding the proposals contained in this Bill is: Can we regulate, so that we do not move too fast? That is why we have the board. We want to bring our cotton industry back to life. There is no way of doing this, other than through this technology. We, as a country, want to ensure that our youth get employment. The Ministry of Industrialization must ensure that we open up our industries. Passing this Bill will provide for regulation to ensure that we assist in addressing the many problems and challenges we are facing. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, looking at our industry, we, as a country, are sometimes accused of being slow. We have produced so many graduates, scholars and researchers. However, these experts cannot get employment in the field of research, because we have refused to embrace modern technology. As a result, we have a lot of brain drain to the countries that have embraced this technology. Can we tap the talents of our own people to ensure that we put everything in order? The law that is proposed through this Bill will deal with what is within and without. When I talk about \"without\" I mean the GMOs on transit. Clause 22 of the Bill takes charge of this very well. It stipulates it in a very candid way. It says:- \"That any person transporting through Kenya, genetically modified organisms which are not destined for use in Kenya, shall apply for a written approval of such transportation from the authority.\" Take note of the words \"from the authority.\" From where are transporters of such materials getting authority to transport them through Kenya today, given that we do not have such an institution? We are seeking to establish that institution through this Bill. Secondly, such transporters are supposed to ensure that such GMO materials being transported are properly packaged and transported in accordance with such regulations as may be prescribed, and in accordance with any applicable international standards. We are a sovereign state. Uganda is a sovereign state. Rwanda is a sovereign state. The day they will want to introduce this technology, what law will we use to ensure that materials do not spill over to our own country? Information on the Biosafety Bill has not gone down to the grassroots level in the correct manner. Therefore, I wish to recommend that, through the Ministry or the proposed authority, once December 2, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3771 formed, the Kenyan population is fully sensitised on the resultant Act. I want to repeat that passing this Bill alone will not make Members of Parliament \"sell\" the country. I want to put it very clearly that the passage of this Bill will move our country from the current situation of depending on other countries in terms of food production. With those remarks, I beg to support."
}