Posted on March, 11, 2025 at 10:49 am
Controversy surrounding the promotion of Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) last Friday took a full circle after the Court of Appeal overturned earlier rulings lifting the ban imposed on the technology.
In the latest twist the Kenyan Peasants League secured a conservatory order stopping the government from taking any further action to allow or permit the importation of GMO crops and food into the country pending determination of their appeal.
“We are persuaded that, in the circumstances of this case and given what is at stake, the precautionary principle militates in favor of granting conservatory orders during the pendency of the appeal,” the ruling read in part
The Petitioners argued that the earlier decision to lift the GMO ban was done without due consideration of scientific evidence highlighting potential health and environmental risks.
Although the respondent assured the court that Kenya had a comprehensive legal and institutional framework to regulate the cultivation and importation of GMOs, the bench was ruled otherwise in court battle dating back to 2022 when the cabinet first lifted the ten year ban.
However the landmark ruling has elicited mixed reactions from various quarters with the civil societies and farmer’s rights groups commending the decision of the bench while the government and biotech experts on the other side of the divide suffered a major setback
In a joint statement, The Kenya Peasants League, Biodiversity and Bio-safety Association of Kenya (BIBA) and 18 other parties enjoined in the petition described the ruling as a historic victory for food sovereignty, farmers’ rights, and environmental justice.
“We celebrate this ruling as a significant step in protecting the rights of small-scale farmers and consumers while safeguarding Kenya’s biodiversity and ecological balance”. The statement read in part.
Kenya Peasants’ League representative David Otieno claimed that GMO was not the solution to food insecurity in the country but instead deepened the dependency on multinational agribusinesses, threaten biodiversity, and compromise farmers ’ability to control their food systems.”
He said the interest of the public was best served in the ruling by maintaining the ban before the teething legal and policy questions surrounding GMOs were fully addressed.
Otieno emphasized on the need for a comprehensive legal and institutional framework to factor the potential adverse health, environmental, and socio-economic impacts of GMOs before any policy shifts were implemented.
They asked the government to instead prioritize agro ecological solutions as the sustainable alternative to industrial agriculture with BIBA National Coordinator Anne Maina insisting that the launch of Kenya National Agroecology Strategy for Food Systems Transformation November 2024 was a key milestone in addressing the food deficit.
“We urge the government to invest in smallholder farmers, indigenous seed systems, and agro ecological farming practices rather than pushing harmful technologies that serve corporate interests,” said Million Belay, General Coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa.
The development opens a fresh chapter of legal battles over an issue that has sparked a series of litigations that culminated with the High Court dismissal of earlier petitions challenging the lifting of the sanction after the Environment and Land Court in 2023 okayed the use of the technology asserting that the government had implemented robust safety measures.
Source: Kenya News Agency