1.Comments from the GM Free Africa list
2.US Dept of Agriculture report on biotech and Kenya

GM WATCH COMMENT: Like South Africa, Kenya has been targeted consistently by both the biotech industry and USAID since the days of the corrupt Moi adminstration.
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1.Comments from the GM Free Africa list

From: Phil Bereano This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

During the Jo-berg EarthSummit, I debated a very high-level USAID official on SA TV about such matters. It was very contentious. The arguments continued after the cameras went off and she said to me, "In a few years we will have planted enough GE in Africa so that the whole continent will be 'contaminated'."

That's the gameplan, and we should always keep it in mind, in my opinion. It's intentional, not "adventitious". It is a way of destroying the Protocol (which has always been the US objective).

from the belly of the beast,

Phil

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Philip L. Bereano
Professor Emeritus
Department of Technical Communication
Box 352195, Loew Hall
University of Washington
Seattle, Wash 98195 USA
ph: (206) 543-9037
fx: (206) 543-8858
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On Sat, 12 Aug 2006, African Centre Biosafety wrote:

> As you all can see from the report just posted, GM food aid and trade is streaming into Kenya, whilst money is being thrown at the research institutions to detract attention away from this/make it acceptable and palatable.

These field trials are just nonsense and so are promises of commercialisation.

This also makes nonsense of the Biosafety Protocol and the need for biosafety laws, which is all about case by case risk assessment and decision-making, before a country should allow any imports. In Africa, as in the case of Kenya, these bulk shipments of GMOs coming from the

> US, contains several varieties of GM maize for instance---technically, these are all unapproved GMOs.

 In Kenya,, it is business as usual, and really, at this point in time,  the US does not need any biosafety laws in Kenya, because it is doing what it wants.
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2.US Dept of Agriculture report on biotech and Kenya:
USDA Foreign Agricultural Service
GAIN Report
Released: Aug 11 2006 Kenya
Kenya Biotechnology Report KE6006

Highlight: Though Kenya does not produce any commercial crops that involve transgenic process, it is in the process of developing an official policy to govern trade and production of genetically modified organisms (GMO). It is also one of the most progressive countries in sub-saharan Africa regarding GMO.
http://www.fas.usda.gov/scripts/gd.asp?ID=146208638

excerpts:

11. Biotechnology Trade and Promotion

...There is ongoing research in development of GM crops, which are [at] the various stages of Research and Development. These include Bt maize (confined field trials), viral resistant transgenic sweet potato, cassava resistant to the cassava mosaic virus, and Bt cotton (has undergone one season of confined field trial). It is hoped that in the next decade Kenya will commercialize some of these transgenic products.

The U.S. exported transgenic products to Kenya in 2005. These include shipments under the McGovern Dole Food for Education Program, USAID food aid programs (Title 11, Food for Progress). The products are soybean/products and corn/products.

1V. Marketing Issues

U.S. agricultural and food exports over the last five calendar years average $ 32.2 million with over 80 percent being food aid and monetized shipments under Food for Progress, Title II, P.L. 480 and/or Section 416 (b). The most important being corn and vegetable oils (have transgenic content).

...The country needs include assistance in enhancement of Biosafety Bill for Kenya.