EXCERPT: Muindi claimed that the US had now bribed scientists at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) with the sole purpose of using them to protect multinational biotechnology companies to deliver GMO seeds to Kenyan farmers.
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COMMENT: Anyone taken aback by such an accusation should remember the extensive corruption Monsanto has been shown to have engaged in Indonesia: http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=58&page=1
They should also remember that the Kenyan government recently had to terminate GM maize experiments being run by KARI, and order the destruction of the crop, after a technician sprayed the trial GM maize crop with a restricted chemical, Furadan, which acts on stem borers. Spraying would have the effect of biasing the results in favour of the GM borer-resistant crop.
Kenya's Agriculture Secretary, Dr Wilson Songa, commented, "Unfortunately, there is an emerging tendency by our scientists yielding to pressure from international collaborators pushing to secure approvals for their research projects faster, sidestepping procedures."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5655
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Kenyan NGO to lobby MPs against GMO food
AngolaPress, Nov 19 2005
http://www.angolapress-angop.ao/noticia-e.asp?ID=392722
Nairobi, Kenya, 11/19 - A nongovernmental organisation (NGO) in Kenya, Africa Nature Stream, plans to lobby and meet the country's parliamentarians to fight against the introduction of genetically modified crops in the country, ANS chairman Masoa Muindi said Friday here.
Currently, Muindi observed, a draft bill to formulate biotechnology in the country was at the attorney general`s office waiting for parliament to pass it.
Muindi, in a letter to the US ambassador to Kenya, alluded to a speech delivered by an embassy official, John Smith, at a recent function in Nairobi where the introduction of GMO foods were encouraged in the country.
The NGO claimed that during the Africa Harvest International function, where the promotion of GMOs was widely acclaimed as best for the African continent, America was taking Kenyans and Africa for a ride by persuading them into the development of genetically modified crops.
"By passing the bill, the government will be robbing Kenya of crops not being purchased in the world market as they will have been contaminated with the genetically engineered organisms," he added.
Muindi claimed that the US had now bribed scientists at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) with the sole purpose of using them to protect multinational biotechnology companies to deliver GMO seeds to Kenyan farmers.
He also accused KARI of "pretence" while delivering newly introduced seeds to the farmers from their research stations without declaring to farmers the consequences and the dangers of such inputs.
"They have been lying to Kenyans that the new plants will save them from hunger," he charged.
Muindi further said the GMO scheme has failed miserably in the developed countries such as Canada, Russia and Japan hence "the reason why they have decided to dump the technology and seeds in Africa".
He requested the American government to stop financing and promoting any kind of food crops and seeds which would adversely affect African economies, adding that the continent, with its climate, fertile soils, rivers and natural water could easily feed its people "with proper management of resources."