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The worst drought in 40 years is causing food insecurity and threatening famine in East Africa. This has forced Kenya to lift the decade-old ban on openly cultivating and importing genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
The worst drought in 40 years is causing food insecurity and threatening famine in East Africa. In a country like Kenya, where arable land on the outskirts of the capital, Nairobi, is supposed to be fertile, four consecutive failed rainy seasons have turned one farmer’s life upside down.
That forced Kenya to lift the decade-old ban on openly cultivating and importing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). It is widely believed that the lifting of the ban on GMOs came amid pressure from the US government. The US had argued that the ban affected US agricultural exports and food aid. The use of genetically modified crops is seen as a solution to failing harvests.
Kenya’s National Biosafety Authority (NBA) has been testing varieties of maize that have been genetically modified (GM) to resist drought.
There are critiques of the lifting of the ban on GMO products. Food security, consumer rights, and biodiversity groups are at loggerheads with the government’s decision, saying there should have been public consultations on an issue that is vital to the country’s economy and safety. They feel that the decision at the behest of the US would curtail the freedom of Kenyans to choose what they want to eat.
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Despite the promise by the newly elected President William Ruto for transparent government policies, activists feel the decision to openly cultivate and import genetically modified crops will hurt the growing organic export market, creating unfair conditions for Kenyan farmers. More than 80% of the farmers in Kenya are small landholders. But the government sources scotch the allegation that there was no consultation. They maintain that tests were undertaken to prove that the GMOs are safe and tell that it was the only way forward amidst the climate crisis.
