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{
    "id": 243145,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/243145/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 229,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 195,
        "legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
        "slug": "raila-odinga"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I stand to oppose this most unscientific Motion. The Mover of this Motion, being a scientist himself--- I am really taken aback as to why the Mover would like to take Kenya behind other countries. We live in a scientific age where mankind continues to study and discover the laws of nature, and make use of them for the service of mankind. There are many things that we are doing today, which were not imaginable some years back. Remember that Galileo was \"burned a steak\" for merely saying that the world was round. Years later, he became a hero. That happened because of ignorance of mankind. But mankind has continued the quest to discover nature. That is why we have reached a stage where we are able to genetically modify food and produce more for the consumption of mankind. The population of this world is growing very fast. In 1956, when I was in primary school, China was the most populous country in the world. It had a population of 550 million. Today, the Chinese are over 1.5 billion. The population has grown threefold. Likewise, in this country, we were only 6 million at Independence. Today, the population is estimated at 34 million people. We have continued to produce more mouths to feed. Therefore, we need to develop better methods to feed them. That is why I do not see the reason why somebody should come and say that GM foods should be banned. Let him give an example of a country where a blanket ban has been imposed on genetically modified foods. I do not know of any country that has done that. I recently came from the United States of America (USA) and I know that those foods are used there. The same applies to Europe. I do not see any reason why an hon. Member, who is knowledgable, should propose a blanket ban on genetically modified foods. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, some countries have high yields of cotton because of July 12, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2013 genetical modification. Our people sometimes fear innovation. When I was in charge of the Ministry of Energy, and we were talking about a policy on energy, I said that we should be very open-minded and look at all the available possibilities. That is because hydro-electric potential is almost exhausted. We also have a limited geo-thermal energy potential. I said that, as we look at new and renewable sources of energy, let us be open and even look at nuclear energy as a source of energy. The moment I mentioned the word \"nuclear\" the hall just became quiet. I had touched the untouchable! I said I am ashamed that people should be so fearful or frightened by the use of the word \"nuclear\". Countries in Europe and Japan have continued to develop new generation nuclear reactors. The peaceful use of nuclear energy is universal. I said: For this country to develop technologically and industrially, we must confront that issue and bring a nuclear reactor of up to 2,000 megawatts. That issue has not been resolved up to today. We must be prepared to think out of box in this country, if we are going to develop and become industrial. This House must provide leadership to this country. That is why this Parliament is charged with the responsibility of creating a vision for this country. We must have visionary leaders who are prepared to look at 50 years from now and take measures today to deal with those kind of situations. We should not be living from hand to mouth, just thinking of what is happening today. We should not either be influenced by some other commercial considerations in taking decisions that affect our people. We must be very open-minded. That is why I stand to strongly oppose this Motion which is very ill-conceived. With those remarks, I beg to opposed."
}