FALSE: THE CHURCH HAS NOT BEEN SILENT ON GMO DISCOURSE IN KENYA

The claim that the church in Kenya has been silent about the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) discourse going on in the country is false.

 

On 22nd November 2022, Alxx through Twitter claimed that  the church in Kenya had been silent about the GMO subject and termed this as a betrayal. The tweep went ahead to justify this by saying that this is because of the pious nature of the leadership.

This comes at a time when the government has resorted to GMO importation to alleviate the hunger situation in parts of Kenya. To achieve this, Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria, reported that the government shall allow GMO importation after he submits a gazette notice. This sparked a backlash on the saga as some leaders expressed their fears that an issue of such magnitude needed public participation.

 

Ruben FM looked into this claim to verify its authenticity.

 

On 21st November 2022, the church came out strongly to state its position by demanding transparency from the government on the issue;

 

“When we speak about GMOs, it is a serious matter that deserves discussion; deep, sober engagement. We understand we may need them for a momentary relief to go towards the feeding of our people with food that maybe in fact GMO……Kenyans deserve respect and not spite and on this matter, they do deserve an apology…”

 

“We cannot just give something like that without proper scientific research … the questions which arise; who did scientific research about GMO, where was it done, was there public participation?..”

 

This points out that the church demands accountability from the government and the public being accorded the respect they deserve throughout the whole issue.

 

The claim that the church has been silent on the GMO saga in Kenya is, therefore, false and misleading.

 

This fact check was published by Ruben FM with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance.