A Nairobi court has dismissed a petition filed by the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) seeking to quash a decision by the Cabinet to lift ban on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
During a meeting chaired by President William Ruto in early October 2022, the Cabinet lifted the ban on Genetically Modified Crops (GMO) . The ban had been in place for 10 years. The decision allowed farmers to cultivate and import food crops and animal feeds produced through biotechnology.
In the suit, the LSK had alleged that the cultivation, importation, and exportation of GMO maize was being undertaken without an Enviromental Impact Assessment (EIA) license.
The Environment and Land Court said no evidence had been placed before it to show that the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation is already undertaking cultivation of food, feed and processing, import, export and transit of MON 810 event in maize varieties in Kenya without EIA licence.
The Court dismissed the petition dated 16th January 2023 on grounds that it has not been shown that the respondents, and the institutions named breached the laws, regulations, and guidelines pertaining to GM food.
In particular, the court found no breach in the approval of the release in the environment, cultivation, importation and exportation of Bt Maize. The respondents in the petition included the Attorney General, National Biosafety Authority (NBA), National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), and Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (Karlo).
“With all these institutions, save for NEMA which has not issued an Environmental Impact Assessment Licence, we should be confident that our health and environment is in good hands, it cannot be true that they have all conspired to expose the rest of the population to the calamities alluded to in the petition, at least not from the evidence on record,” said Judge Oscar Angote.
According to the judge’s ruling, the LSK did not challenge the constitutionality of the laws governing GMOs, both international and domestic. It noted that the regulatory barriers that govern importation and cultivation of GMOs remain in force, and the same are presumed to be constitutional until proved otherwise.
“The evidence before me shows that the country has put in place robust frameworks with inbuilt structures which must be met before they consider and determine applications approval and transfer, handling and use of genetically modified organisms,” he wrote in the landmark ruling.
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