Court Rejects Legal Challenge Against Genetically Modified Crops

A Kenyan court on Thursday dismissed a legal challenge against the government’s decision to allow the importation and cultivation of genetically modified crops as a strategy to address the country’s food crisis.

The government lifted a decade-long ban on GM crops in October last year in response to severe food security concerns arising from the most severe drought to afflict the Horn of Africa region in four decades.

However, the Kenya Law Society initiated legal proceedings, contending that the decision was unconstitutional due to apprehensions about the safety of GM crops.

On Thursday, Judge Oscar Angote sitting at the environmental court ruled that there was no evidence indicating any harm to nature or human health.

Justice Angote asserted that the country has established a robust biosafety regulatory framework with built-in structures that must be satisfied before the consideration of the use of GMOs.

“As a country, we need to trust the institutions that we have in place and call them to order in the event of breach of the law,” Angote said.

Additionally, the judge highlighted that the Biosafety Act outlines the role of the National Biosafety Authority (NBA), in collaboration with the Department of Public Health. This collaboration is aimed at ensuring consumer health through activities such as food safety and quality control, as well as the surveillance, prevention, and control of foodborne diseases.

“With all these institutions, we should be confident that our health and environment is in good hands, it can’t be true they can all conspire to expose the population to calamities,” the judge added.