Kenya lifts ban on genetically modified foods despite strong opposition

Genetically modified foods have been the subject of many debates in Kenya, but the country’s newly elected government hopes they could be a solution to a crisis in a country facing runaway food shortages.

Over 4 million people in Kenya are currently facing high levels of acute food insecurity — IPC Phase 3 or above — due to a prolonged drought following the failure of rains for four consecutive seasons. In response, the government lifted a 10-year ban on the cultivation and importation of genetically modified crops in early October.

A dispatch sent to the media by Kenya’s cabinet said that the decision was guided by recommendations of a task force on genetically modified foods and food safety and guidelines of the National Biosafety Authority. The report compiled by the task force — which was set up in 2013 and completed its work a year later — was not made public.

While the move has been welcomed by some, advocates against genetically modified foods have opposed the authorization, citing safety issues to human health and the environment.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a major food security donor, has consistently endorsed the cultivation of genetically modified foods in sub-Saharan Africa, despite criticism. A World Bank policy research paper also found that GM varieties “offer a powerful tool for nutritional enhancement that may save lives (Golden Rice) or help poor farmers adapt to climate change through faster integration of genes for drought and flood tolerance.”

Before the 2012 ban, Kenya had been importing genetically modified maize, according to Eric Korir, a principal biosafety officer at NBA. The ban was sparked by a study from French scientist Gilles-Eric Séralini linking genetically modified foods to cancer, which led to bans on GM organisms importation and cultivation in several countries.

Despite the ban, he said, NBA continued with research on GMOs as scientists lobbied the government to lift the ban — especially after Séralini’s study methods were questioned and his study was ultimately retracted from the journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology.

Korir said the price of GM foods is usually lower than that of non-GM foods due to lower costs of production. 

“Genetically modified maize is readily available internationally and less costly and hence a good alternative to address food insecurity now,” he said. 

As of 2021, a total of 10 countries in Africa were growing GM crops, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications. They include South Africa, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Sudan, Mozambique, Niger, Ghana, Rwanda, Zambia, and Nigeria. “With GM technology, farmers will have access to fast-maturing, disease-resistant crops, and get better yields,” said Korir.

Data from South Africa has shown that the country — one of Africa’s biggest cultivators of GM crops — has seen food security and economic benefits from genetically modified foods, Korir said. The GM crops created 4.6 million additional white maize rations annually.

Currently, Korir said, Kenya imports maize from Zambia, at about 6,000 Kenyan shillings ($55) per 90-kilogram (198 pounds) bag. But a hybrid grown in South Africa known as BT maize, because it’s genetically engineered to produce Bacillus thuringiensis insecticidal proteins, would cost less.

But the Biodiversity and Biosafety Association of Kenya, or BIBA Kenya, has set up a petition to “stop the Kenyan government decision to lift the ban on GMO foods.” The petition states that the “use of the current hunger situation to justify the decision to allow GMOs into the country is also quite unsettling and a clear violation of the principles of the Human Right to Adequate Food.” Kenya’s Constitution states that “every person has the right — to be free from hunger, and to have adequate food of acceptable quality.” 

BIBA Kenya’s petition states that NBA lacks the capacity to regulate GMOs and demands a stay on the decision to lift the ban, citing misinformation and a lack of public participation.

Claire Nasike, a food for life campaigner at Greenpeace Africa, said lifting the ban will also give control of seeds to multinational corporations and that the GM crops will cause contamination and loss of biodiversity through pollination. 

Nasike added that cultivating GM crops would hurt farmers.

“Lifting the ban on GMOs will expose innocent farmers to draconian intellectual property laws by the multinational corporations fronting GMOs as GM seeds are guarded by intellectual property rights,” she said.

In order to improve food security, Nasike said that “the government ought to have focused on increasing farmers’ access to water, have adequate agricultural extension services that train and educate farmers on better agronomic practices, proper infrastructure to move food from one location to another, and sufficient storage facilities to minimize food loss and wastage.”

Korir argued that BIBA Kenya and Greenpeace Africa’s arguments are not based on science.

He said that NBA is planning to reach out to farmers and consumers to educate them about how GM seeds are developed and to allay safety concerns. Once farmers have started cultivating the GM crops, NBA is legally required to monitor the crops for t20 years.

Currently, only one GM crop is being grown commercially in Kenya following its approval. BT cotton was approved by the government in 2019 because it is a nonfood crop that doesn’t have the same implications for human health. NBA has been monitoring the crop and Korir said the results so far are satisfactory.

Other crops now undergoing trials in Kenya include maize, cassava, sweet potato, Irish potato, and banana. BT maize developed by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, or KALRO, has completed the approval process and is currently awaiting registration by the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service. After that, it will be ready for distribution to farmers — potentially, Korir said, by “next planting season.”

Korir said new developers rushing in to make applications for GM crop approvals will have to wait at least two years for their crops to go on the market. But for the importation of GM foods, the process is far quicker: “If an importer makes an application to import BT maize today, it will take us three days to process his approval,” he said.

Geoffrey Bett, a 36-year-old maize farmer from Narok in southwest Kenya, said that the unpredictable weather, attacks by the fall armyworm, and high cost of seeds and fertilizers have led to low yields — making maize farming on his 33 acres (13 hectares) unprofitable. While he embraces the announcement that GM crops have been approved, he doesn’t know much about the GM maize that will be made available by KALRO.

“I like the idea of a pest and disease-resistant GM maize,” he said. “But I also need to know about how to grow it.”