The government on Monday lifted the ban on the Genetically Modified Organisms(GMO) food products thus sparking lots of reactions.
The Kenyan government imposed a ban on GMO food products in 2012 over concerns of increasing cancer cases.
Following the lifting of the ban, farmers will now be able to cultivate and import food crops and animal feeds that have been genetically modified.
Many have however faulted the government’s rushed move of lifting the ban saying that it did not involve the public in the decision.
Others have however welcomed the move, saying it is the solution to food security. Some advantages of GMO products that experts have listed include; crops are resistant to pests and diseases and they take a short period to mature.
Prof. Richard Oduor, the Director of Research at Kenyatta University, however says that the move to lift the ban is very important and scientists are excited about it.
In an interview with NTV, Oduor noted that there have been cancer cases throughout the period that genetically modified foodstuffs had been banned. He also said that GMO food products can solve Cancer.
“For the last 10 years, there has been a ban in this country meaning there hasn’t been any importation, consumption or anything to do with GMO apart from the research we are doing in the lab. Have we had cases of cancer?” he posed.
“Any person who quickly attributes GMO to cancer is just not doing a good service to the real research that needs to be done towards cancer. I have done research in cancer and we are about to receive another disbursement of funds just to do research on cancer in this country and therefore GMO can actually solve cancer because there are a lot more of drugs that are developed from the recombinant DNA technology,” he added
Explaining why technology has not been adopted in developed countries that are currently using GMO, Prof Oduor said that there is a lot of work going on on the matter.
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