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"id": 177313,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Mututho",
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"legal_name": "John Michael Njenga Mututho",
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"content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker. Biotechnology is not new in this country. In fact, it has been part of our own customs. The mursik, that beautiful milk from Kipsigis land is based on the concept that if we introduce carbon to milk and ferment it, the pathogens will be attracted to the carbon and no mursik is known to cause any illness. That is biotechnology. Biotechnology has been used extensively even in Ukambani. We know the root systems in a lemon are much more advanced and so by cutting a shoot from a lemon and introducing an orange, that is biotechnolgy. You have a very stable plant which will be an orange and not a lemon. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, biotechnolgoy has been used extensively during the hybrid concept. The hybrid concept is taking those animals or plants which are said to be superior or have certain characteristics. For example, if you were to breed for milk production, those ones with good characteristics, good conversion ratio and so on and so forth. That cross-breeding or upgrading brings in hybrids, and the hybrid system has been used extensively again here particularly in maize and that is what has made Kenya Seed Company prosper. This is close to Obamaism. Mr. Obama is a cross breed of the very best from Africa. That is hybrid and it is a fact. It is S1 cross and a superior person. That is technology. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, we cannot cover our heads against technology. Science has advanced very fast. This Bill would be useful to the extent that it controls excesses in science. These are excesses that can hurt people. I want to talk about cloning and the result of Dolly the sheep. I hope we remember Dolly the sheep. That was an excess in science. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, Dolly the sheep is good. It is good if that sheep called Dolly disappeared when there was a big catastrophe and then the genes would be reintroduced. However, we must listen to other people too. We must listen to Christians! This is because they do not trust in science or politics. They have a reason not to. This is because we do not seem to understand our planet very well. For example, the latest we have heard is that we have sent an e- message to a planet which we think has inhabitants. That will take 20 light years. For us to get a feedback from this, we shall require 40 years. We shall be long dead before we get any response. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, so, the Christians and civil activists must be listened to. They are saying something. We do not have a comprehensive answer towards this. I want to inform the Government that some of the most celebrated researchers, one being Prof. Suzuki--- Prof. Suzuki's Institute in Canada got six noble prizes in biology. He was my professor when I was at the university in Australia. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, Prof. Suzuki was given a task to define to the Government what happens to a fruit fly and how it crosses over during winter. How does it resist the winter? They did everything. Using genetic engineering at its remote form then, they were able to have some feed coming from the mouth of the bloody insects--- The fruit flies just like a house fly were able to do it with 12 legs. They were able to do wonderful things. However, they did not understand why the fruit flies will always go through winter. We want to reduce the excesses. Why do we want to reduce excesses? Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Genetically Modified (GM) trees, when introduced mean nothing to an average person. We want to know whether this new variety of tree is extracting and forming compounds similar to tobacco which produces over 400 harmful products. Is this the product that we want to introduce to our grandmothers for firewood? Are we December 2, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3779 trying to introduce a very dangerous product that will eventually kill us? That is why I am saying that in this Bill there must be adequate provision for a clearing house. This clearing house is not the Kenya Plant Health and Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS). This clearing house is a serious body corporate that will be in charge of anybody who wants to import anything. That was a provision in the Cartagena Protocol. It is not my provision. We agreed to that. Secondly, we want to have comprehensive risk assessment. Our research institutes like Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) can do the risk assessment. We must also have a package on risk management. What happens if things do not work out right? Even rocket science, with all the advancements, sometimes things go wrong and we have a problem. Eventually, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, we must have a provision in this Bill to create adequate public awareness. I have already explained the fears and worries of christians when we try to introduce devil worship. Everybody should understand so that we can swing at the same strength. We cannot sit here, even when we are opposing the Bill, and say that genetic engineering technology is bad. It is not bad because to breed a new variety that can take as little as six months, whereas it would have taken about 20 years or thereabout! That is a good technology. But when we allow companies like those ones dealing with herbicides to breed a variety of maize that is resistant to a particular herbicide that is going to be used commercially, then people get concerned! Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the breed in maize, and that is what is being used in the USA, targets herbicides and also targets insecticides. I do not want to imagine that insects have more brains than us, in rejecting that product. Insects reject it because they think it can kill them. We accept it because we think it will increase production because insects will not eat it. We must have the four factors embedded into this Bill. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I do not want to tire hon. Members with a lot of"
}