THE GMO DEBATE HEATS UP NAIROBI

[By John Mbaria in Nairobi] The grand scheme to introduce genetically modified foods into Kenya seemed to shift into top gear after the Ministry of Agriculture launched a campaign last month to make the country appreciate them.
First, Minister for Agriculture, William Ruto, who has on several occasions publicly expressed his support for the introduction of GM foods into the country, launched the National Biotechnology Awareness Strategy last month. According to a statement Ruto sent to the press, the strategy was aimed at offering Kenyans "accurate and reliable information and knowledge" about such branches of biotechnology as tissue culture, molecular breeding and genetic modification.
"This will enable Kenyans to make informed decisions and be involved in determining the pace of adoption of biotechnology in the country," he said.
However, Ruto went ahead to state that Kenya will embrace GMOs, making it appear the government had launched the awareness campaign merely to state its pro-GMO stance. This has led to fresh fears that the government has irrevocably decided on introduction, cultivation and commercialization of GMOs in the country. Ruto had earlier, on August 14, said he has never come across any proof that GMOs are risky to human health and stated that it was the height of irony for people to continue opposing GMO proliferation when the country has been importing food from countries that grow genetically modified foods. Indeed, the Assistant Minister for Basic Education, Prof Ayiecho Olweny, confessed last month that the government has been importing GM-foods. He was addressing a luncheon organised in Nairobi by key pro-GM lobbyists under the auspices of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa.
"All this noise about GMOs... is politics (and) politics is more dangerous than science... We are eating some of them already," he said.
Prof Olweny also revealed that he and fellow legislators had worked hard to defeat a Bill brought to parliament last year by a former Saboti MP, Davis Nakitare, which had asked the government to ban GMOs in Kenya. The Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology has also been preparing to take back to parliament a Bill that was heavily criticised last year for failing to address the concerns of farmers and consumers and for merely seeking to create the necessary legal framework for the introduction of GMOs in Kenya.
It been established from sources at parliament that the revised Bill was recently presented before two House committees -- Agriculture, Land and Natural Resources as well as the one on Education, Science and Technology.
"The new Bill is termed the Biosafety Bill 2008. But much of its contents closely resemble those in the Biosafety Bill 2007," said Wanjiru Kamau, the spokesperson of the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition (KBioC). She said that apart from a few clauses that have been changed following an outcry by KBioC, the rest of the contents "are intact."
Other critics had charged that the very process of preparing the Bill was shrouded in secrecy, with a leading environmental lawyer Maurice Makoloo who said last year; "There has been so much secrecy that most stakeholders do not even know where they can get a copy of the Bill."
Interestingly, by mid this year, the farmers' and consumers' lobby, aided by animal welfare organisations and groups that champion organic farming had drafted their version of the bill and presented it to parliament as a private member's Bill. This is the Biotechnology and Biosafety Bill 2008, introduced into parliament by the only Mazingira-Green Party MP, Silas Muriuki, who is also a farmer in Meru.
According to the Hansard record, Mr Muriuki had filed the notice in parliament on June 26. But a day later, the government -- through Dr Sally Kosgey, the Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology -- published Biosafety Bill 2008 under Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 48 (Bills No. 15). There are now suspicions that the government is determined to push through an unpopular Bill and that the ministers' demonstrated support for introduction of GMOs is a prelude to full introduction of the technology.
"They want to do it by force, the so-called national awareness strategy is a mere gimmick," said Josphat Ngonyo of the Africa Network for Animal Welfare. Mr Ngonyo said KBioC, of which he is a member, has attempted to get the agriculture minister to listen to its side of the GMO story to no avail. KBioC is anumbrella body representing over 50 farmers' groups, religious organisations, consumer organisations and NGOs.
Other developments also seem to point to the fact that the country could be gearing up for the full introduction of these foods. For instance, during a field day staged by the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) at its Kiboko field station on September 5, it emerged that the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa Project (IRMA), KARI and the International Maize and Wheat Centre (CIMMYT) are preparing to release genetically modified maize to Kenyan farmers between 2010 and 2011.
According to posters displayed during the field day, the genetically modified maize being tested will be "pre-released" to farmers in 2010 and will later be released "on a large-scale" in 2011.
This writer saw rows of maize plants in the KARI farm that were clearly labelled GMO and received confirmation from the head of KARI's Biotechnology Centre, Dr Simon Gichuki, that besides Kiboko, KARI is testing GM crops in Alupe, Busia, Kabete and Mwea.
Located in Kibwezi district some four-hours drive along Nairobi-Mombasa highway, Kiboko is part of KARI's overall network of 22 research stations. According to the posters displayed by KARI, much of the core funding for the IRMA project comes from Syngenta Foundation, Melinda & Bill Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. The project focuses on the development of maize varieties that are alleged to have an in-built ability to protect themselves from pests without any chemical being sprayed.
This is the bt-maize, which the project terms "a type of genetically modified maize that uses a gene from common soil bacterium (Bacillus thurigiensis), that produces insecticidal proteins that protects the plant against stem borers.
"Here is evidence that all the activities and the announcements by top government officials, some scientists and pro-GMO lobby are to prepare the country for this eventuality in 2010," said Mr Ngonyo.
But one of the leading proponents of genetic engineering in Kenya, Dr Florence Wambugu, told The EastAfrican that those opposed to the introduction and proliferation of GMOs in Africa are profiteers and fearmongers.
"There are those who get business from fearmongering," she said. She also accused Greenpeace International of offering false information by claiming that some of the maize seeds grown in Kenya are contaminated by GM-materials.
This drew the ire of a Greenpeace official who accused Dr Wambugu of employing "scare tactics" in campaigning for GMOs in Africa.
"The genetic engineering industry, and their spokesperson for Africa, Florence Wambugu, must be really desperate if they are now resorting to lies, and ridiculous ones... Greenpeace never ever endangered the environment, the life of farmers and the health of consumers by putting a single genetically engineered seed into any soil anywhere in the world, and whoever suggests the opposite is completely out of touch with reality," said Jan Van Aken of Greenpeace's Sustainable Agriculture.
What is interesting is that even though she denied that Monsanto ever funded her in her pro-GMO campaign, Dr Wambugu nevertheless admitted that she gets money from such bodies as the United States Development Agency (USAid), Rockefeller Foundation, Dupont and CropLife International. The latter is an organization represented in 91 countries whose members include the global who's-who of the genetic engineering industry -- BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow Agrosciences, Dupont, FMC, Monsanto, Sumitomo and Syngenta. Dr Wambugu is the founder of Africa Harvest, which campaigns for GMOs in Africa.
With all this going on, it seems it is only a matter of time before Kenya joins South Africa in growing and commercialising GMOs. The trouble is that Kenya's horticultural exports to the European Union (EU), particularly baby corn, stand to be affected. Kenya and Zambia are the main exporters of fresh baby corn to the EU, with much of the product being consumed in Britain.
Some of the baby corn sold in British supermarkets is grown by small-scale farmers in Kibwezi under irrigation.
What is most interesting is that the Kenya government recognizes the significant role played by the country's horticultural exports. For instance, a month after coming out in the open to support the proliferation of GMOs, Ruto himself promised flower growers that the country will start branding its horticulture, tea and coffee exports to the EU.[ENDS]

“LONG JOHN SILVER” ALIVE IN THE INDIAN OCEAN

[VICTORIA 3/OCT/08 © A POSITIVE OUTCOMES COMMENT] Just when the world was almost forgetting the captive tales of yore that romanticized the villainy of “Captain Blackbeard”, “Long John Silver” and the happy-go-lucky “Captain Jack Sparrow” they have resurrected in the Western Indian Ocean shelf.
This time around they are not accompanied by a parrot aptly named “Captain Flint” chanting “pieces of eight”, neither are they flying the dreaded “Jolly Roger” flag. They are also not merry drinking from endless streams of kegs and vats of rum and other rot-gut liquor at their success of pillaging ill-gotten wealth through sheer bravado of cutlasses and muskets. And they are not donning eye-patches nor sporting wooden legs either.
As times change we change with them too.
Long John Silver and his comrades are now confined to history and more precisely teenage hood fancies. But there are ‘new kids on the block’ who seem eager to replace Silver and his ilk. Somali Pirates.
The rapid deterioration of Somali into lawlessness with the ‘failed state’ tag has given rise to new notions. On the one count Somali was associated with the augmentation of Islamic militancy which military watchers associate with terrorism. The emergence of piracy from the conflict cauldron that is Mogadishu was not predicted. When they ventured into the infamy of piracy, everyone dismissed them as a joke and acted as if they were gadflies and inconsequential.
Initially Somali was seen as a terrorist haven; lately that image seems to be paving way to piracy. But are terrorism and piracy related?
Writing in Legal Affairs, Douglas R. Burgess Jr. draws parallels between piracy and terrorism: “At first glance, the correlation between piracy and terrorism seems a stretch. Yet much of the basis of this skepticism can be traced to romantic and inaccurate notions about piracy. An examination of the actual history of the crime reveals startling, even astonishing, parallels to contemporary international terrorism. Viewed in its proper historical context, piracy emerges as a clear and powerful precedent.”
The “Long John Silver” antics currently being employed by Somali sea bandits are not comforting news to Small Island Developing states like Comoros, Seychelles and others. Looked at from a larger context, the gnawing threat of piracy, its correlation to terrorism and even possibly mercenary activities call for a rethink of how the world views the Horn of Africa’ and the Western Indian ocean shelf. In the last one month piracy in the Indian Ocean however, has made headlines and nudged the superpowers to rethink maritime security and the protocols governing international waters.
A decade ago, the Asian shipping lines held the top spot in piracy and related ship attacks. The Strait of Malacca which adjoins, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia was a pirate’s haven ten years ago.
The mantle is now held by Somalis. The Somalis this week pushed piracy to new levels after hijacking a Ukrainian (read Russian) ship destined to Mombasa City (Kenya’s coastal capital). Unlike other pirates, the Somali pirates are debunking the age-old time honored tactics of piracy by setting precedents. According to the Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) a Malaysian based outfit that monitors piracy, African waters now lead in piracy accounting for 56% of all piracy related activities.
By hijacking the MV-Faina which throughout its voyage has been flying the Belize flag the Somali “jolly roger flyers” have made world news thanks to the nature of the booty aboard the ship. MV-Faina is a precious arsenal and small wonder the pirates are unwittingly playing to the world media, demanding a hefty $35 million ransom (they have since reduced to $20 million) before releasing the cargo. Originally, the ‘precious cargo’ of some 35 T-75 Russian military tanks and an unspecified amount of artillery which has raised red flags in Washington, Moscow, Paris, London and Brussels respectively, not to mention sending shivers in Nairobi, Mogadishu and the entire East and central Africa was allegedly destined for Kenya. The spin wags are now saying the cache of weapons was not destined to Nairobi, but to Southern Sudan. Is this the reason why the pirates are dancing to the world media? Just listen to this.
According to Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers Assistance Program the military hardware is destined for Southern Sudan.
"One of the cargo arrived at the port of Mombasa in October last year, two in February this year. The seized load of 33 Russian-built T-72 tanks and some ammunition was the fourth cargo with military equipment for southern Sudan," says Mwangura who hastens to add that the pirates have documented proof authenticating such a claim. Mwangura’s claims are supported by Nathan Christensen a US Navy spokesman in charge of the US Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain.
The Kenya government knowing fully well the implications of such allegations has rebutted the claims. This is because a UN arms embargo on Sudan is still in force. Right from the time when the drama played out, Nairobi claimed ownership of the military hardware.
They say there is no honour among thieves, well the Somali buccaneers seem to be doing the exact opposite as if their action is an ‘honourable act’. And this is what makes the entire scenario somewhat curious. One would expect that after hijacking the MV-Faina with its booty, the pirates would have ‘disappeared’ with the cargo and auction it as usual in their black markets before attracting undue attention. But this is not the case. If anything the pirates fully aware of satellite imagery and GIS mapping techniques are using their modern day “Captain Flint” [Long John Silver’s parrot] to shout a “pieces of eight” (old Spanish coins much loved by pirates) for the world to ‘hear them out’.
But wait a minute who said piracy is a dishonorable profession? Its not and the Somali Jolly Roger standard bearers seem to have their history right. In her treatise “Piracy of Yore versus Piracy Today” Cindy Vallar notes: “Piracy thrives when three requirements are met: A place to prowl where the rewards are great; an area where the risk of detection is slight and a safe haven.” The Somali brigands perfectly fit this description.
I guess they also know pretty well that Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh were knighted for buccaneering Spanish ships and wrecking havoc on several Spanish coastal cities. In other words in the 16th century courtesy of the “letters of marque” proffered by Queen Elizabeth pirates acted as appendages of the Royal Navy. And they were knighted for flying the Jolly Roger insignia high and enriching the ‘House of Windsor’ while amassing some fortune for themselves. The Somali pirates know that piracy is a time honoured profession used by legitimate governments to fight secret illegitimate wars. And it is with these in mind that the events surrounding the saga of MV-Faina should be viewed with.
There is much more to it than sheer Captain Jack Sparrow-inspired histrionics and Long John Silver’s audacity. The undercurrents are not the ransom money. If anything the pirates are playing some hard ball politics and sending some overt messages. The question should be who has given them the “letter of Marque”? [ENDS]