NAIROBI (CNS): As Kenya’s government lifted a ban on the open cultivation of genetically modified crops [GMO] at a cabinet meeting in Nairobi on October 3, some Catholic bishops expressed reservations about the technology, citing ethical concerns about the farming and consumption of the foods. The ban had been in place since November 2018.
This as Catholics, other Christian groups and relief agencies moved to aid millions of people suffering drought in several arid and semi-arid areas. In September, agencies warned that famine was at the doorstep.
“It is not about rejection or acceptance. It is about understanding the ethical issues around GMOs,” Bishop Wilybard Kitogho Lagho of Malindi explained, adding, “The timing is wrong. Why wait to fix an issue when people are most vulnerable? That would be open to manipulation.”
Bishop Lagho said that the ethical concerns about the technology would have come out in the open if there had been public comment on the issue before the lifting of the ban.
“We already know there are some implications. Once GMO seeds are planted, the farmer must always go to the market to buy the seeds for the next planting season. That does not give the peasant farmer a leeway to compete favourably with the multi-nationals,” the bishop said.
We already know there are some implications. Once GMO seeds are planted, the farmer must always go to the market to buy the seeds for the next planting season. That does not give the peasant farmer a leeway to compete favourably with the multi-nationals
Bishop Lagho
Father Fredrick Wafula, who oversees Caritas in the northeastern diocese of Garissa, said there is little information about genetically modified foods, their production and consumption among ordinary people.
“With the droughts, we need to produce a lot of food. We are familiar with organic farming methods, but we have very little knowledge about GM technology. We don’t know how they would impact our environment and their impact on people’s health,” Father Wafula said, adding that ordinary people must be educated about the technology so that they can make choices.
In the initial ban, Kenya had cited safety concerns while pointing to a study linking cancer in rats to consumption of genetically modified food.
Bishop Lagho said the recurrent droughts have been caused by climate change, resulting from carbon dioxide pollution of the atmosphere by industrialisation. He said there was international pressure for the legalisation of GMOs to possibly beat food shortages arising from droughts.
However, that option “does not allow us to discuss and address the root causes of the persistent droughts,” he said.
At least 4.2 million people in Kenya are affected by the drought—the worst in 40 years, according to the UN.
