FALSE: Photo does not show the drought situation in Embolioi, Kajiado County, in October 2022
Admin
The claim that the civil societies in Kenya have been silent about the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) discourse going on in the country is not true.
On 22nd November 2022, Alxx through Twitter claimed that civil societies and the church in Kenya had been silent about the GMO issue 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 GMOs after he submits a gazette notice. This sparked a backlash on the matter 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.
In the wake of this conversation, the civil society expressed its position when ten of its members came out to denounce the move. In their press statement, the groups in one accord stated:
“…and we are asking you if you take the CBC through public participation, why are you not taking this decision on GMOs through public participation? Are we applying double standards?…”
“…What is the rush for? Can you put all these things into place, the standards in place, so that the consumer has a right to choose by looking at the standards that are there to choose the right food that they would want to consume…”
This discourse shows that civil society has weighed in on the lifting of the GMO ban. As such, the claim that civil society has been quiet on the GMO matter in Kenya is false and misleading.
This fact check was published by Ruben FM with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance.
