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{
    "id": 244611,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/244611/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 182,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Capt. Nakitare",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 348,
        "legal_name": "Davis Wafula Nakitare",
        "slug": "davis-nakitare"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, our country faces a lot of challenges. We have seen people with obesity. Children who are raised on natural foods are different from those who have been raised on fast foods in towns and cities. You can find a five-year-old child who looks like a 15-year-old child. What is happening here? We are not being faithful to ourselves. We want to grow a crop for three months when nature requires that it grows for nine months before it is harvested. What is the hurry for? What are the consequences? Whereas in economics, some people would want to come up and say:- \"Yes, we would like to use Genetic Modification (GM) in cotton and tobacco\", but those are not consumer goods! Those are cash crops that can be eliminated from the substance. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are concerned because should Kenya continue with GM foods, we might lose international markets for our products. Kenya is able to produce its own food as long as we let our people produce it manually. GM products are mechanized and expensive to our people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you cannot tell, by merely looking at the environment, that a genetically-modified plant cannot affect another plant that is not genetically modified. I have read the contract between Monsanto and an outgrower. The contract requires that one has to depend on Monsanto to produce that seed year in, year out. Should you have a cross-pollination within the seed that they have supplied to you, you are liable for litigation. You will pay a lot of money to the aggrieved party. A similar thing happened in the United States of America. A small- scale farmer was exposed to a civil case until he sold his entire farm. This is not an area which Kenyans would want to rush into. We do not have to rush into systems like this one because we are starving. Our people should use their own hands to produce sufficient food for themselves. Intensive food production based on organic farming is the best way to have clean food in our own environment. This is not a mere argument. We have not even known the cause of the madcow disease. I was in the United States of America when the madcow disease broke out in Europe. The disease originated from animal feeds. Scientists are still looking for the source of the madcow disease causing virus. So, these are areas of concern. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker Sir, one does not just need to walk into a shop, buy Nestle food products and feed one's children when we do not know the contents of that product. What is printed on the surface of that can as instructions to mothers is not exactly what is contained inside. That is for marketing purposes. Are we here for marketing? Is the Kenyan soil going to be marketed? Our soil is naturally fertile enough to produce foodst. We are naturally empowered by God to grow our forests without pollution. We do not need synthetic chemicals or foreign organs within us. I am not talking about modifying human beings or animals, although there are cases, globally, where animals have been cloned. Such experiments have been carried out on sheep, pigs 1836 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 5, 2006 and rats. Such experiments are still on-going. So, we need a Government policy to guide us. We do not expect Kenya to be used as a dumping pit."
}