AGRICULTURE IS AFRICA’S JAB FOR FOOD INSECURITY

In Africa, the agriculture sector is essential for growth, poverty reduction, and food security. More than half of rural employment in Sub- Saharan Africa consists of self-employed farmers, many of whom are women. Agriculture contributes 12 percent to Kenya’s GDP, and GDP growth originating in agriculture is about four times more effective in reducing poverty than GDP growth originating outside the sector. It is also the largest source of foreign exchange, accounting for about 40 percent of the continent’s hard currency earnings; and the main generator of savings and tax revenues. The sector also remains the dominant provider of industrial raw materials with about two-thirds of manufacturing value-added in most African countries being based on agricultural raw materials.

Agriculture in Kenya continues to dominate Kenya's economy, although only 15–17 percent of Kenya's total land area has sufficient fertility and rainfall to be farmed, and only 7–8 percent can be classified as first-class land.

Almost 75 percent of working Kenyans made their living by farming, compared with 80 percent in the earlier days. About one-half of Kenya's total agricultural output is non-marketed subsistence production.

A report by the African Development Bank Group indicates that agriculture supports some 70-80 percent of the total population in Africa, including 70 percent of the continent’s extreme poor and undernourished. This means labor-intensive growth in the sector holds much promise for poverty reduction. Long-term investments aimed at boosting agricultural productivity will contribute to inclusive growth by creating employment opportunities for women and youth. Likewise, the agricultural sector is crucial for finding paths to development that will ease pressure on natural assets while managing environmental and socioeconomic risks better.

Unlocking Africa’s agricultural potential and tackling food insecurity will require sustained coordinated investment using an integrated value-chain approach. While these interventions may be initiated by the public sector, there is need for increased linkages with the private sector, by promoting PPPs in agricultural projects and programs.

  

Food insecurity

There are several products that are exhibited during agricultural shows but they are not implemented outside despite the technologies that are involved in them. Therefore, there is need to strengthen extension services and food security.

Globally, the socio-economic growth of any country is based on the transformation of knowledge, science and technology into goods and services. Integration of Science, Technology and Innovation (ST&I) into national production processes is central to the success of Government’s policy priorities and programmes that lead to development, growth and competitiveness based on new innovative ideas as outlined under Kenya Vision 2030.  This is of significance in this era of demands of global economic competitiveness, sustainable development and equity concerns.

Development of the necessary scientific and technological infrastructure as well as the technical and entrepreneurial skills is an essential prerequisite to the transformation of Kenya into a knowledge-based society. This is because Knowledge-based economies are at advantage in today’s liberalized global market. 

Kenya, and Africa in general is faced with enormous challenges; scientific interventions are needed to ensure food security in the context of climate change. Africa continent should therefore embrace the emerging technologies like modern biotechnology normally undergo risk assessments making them even safer than their conventional counterparts that we normally consume without knowing the risks involved.

As a response to market failure, or as an effort to accelerate market-driven social change, technology transfer may combine public and private sector or rely solely on public institutional mechanisms to identify, develop, and deliver innovations and information. The challenges to technology transfer efforts center on developing indigenous capacity to generate and adapt agricultural technology to local conditions. This is the primary objective of technology transfer in agriculture and the basis for advancing rural development.

The main aim of technology transfer is to modernize economies and transform the way products are produced so countries become more efficient and productive within the global market system. The technology to be transferred is said to not only benefit large scale production, but also to assist small producers and manufacturers of goods, be they in the agricultural sector or otherwise.

A new technology must be socially acceptable and beneficial on many levels, adding to the overall capacity of communities to maintain healthy and sustainable livelihoods.

In a globalized economy, technology licensing and transfer of technology are important factors in strategic alliances and international joint ventures in order to maintain a competitive edge in a market economy.

For this nation to grow to a sustainable economy, the Government should put more focus on agriculture as it creates employment opportunities for youth and helps in promoting more women in farming.

GOOD LEADERSHIP PROMOTES CULTURE OF INNOVATION

Innovation involves the process of turning ideas into reality and causes an impact to the society. It springs from the creativity and brings about change by introducing new tools, products and processes.

Innovation takes place at different levels from modest improvements on an existing product or process to dramatic and even historically significant breakthroughs in how we relate to the world. In all cases, the capacity to innovate will be a function of our commitments, what we want to accomplish and our relationship with the circumstances we perceive we are in.  Innovative systems, tools and thinking are essential for organizational health and future viability.

Leadership on the other hand is about directing and mobilizing people and resources. Leaders need to be innovative for themselves, as they learn to operate in challenging, unpredictable circumstances. They also need to create a climate for innovation in their institutions. Innovative leaders identify the need for change, lead the change process and have to manage change for it to be successful.

Leaders can close the innovation gap by working simultaneously on four essential organizational enablers. Otherwise, innovation will be stifled. These enablers include; leading innovation, culture of innovation, organizational practices for innovation and the innovation plan.

To close the innovation gap, leaders must clarify what they want to achieve with innovation, and understand the specific issues that can prevent individuals and teams from innovating in their organization. An innovative leader will reveal organizational vision, give direction and develop strategies that will help the organization become more innovative.

Executive leaders also must demonstrate their strong commitment in their actions, not only in their talk. They need to make innovation a core priority for the organization and for key departments; assign credible senior people to lead the implementation; and fully resource their innovation initiatives for the long term. It is these kinds of actions that will send the clearest message that innovation is here to stay and not the latest passing trend.

Leaders throughout the organization do not have to be the most innovative individuals but they must learn innovative thinking and learn how to lead and manage innovative teams. About 70 percent of organizations identify innovation as their means to gain competitive advantage yet only 20 percent of organizations conduct any innovation training as revealed by a survey  by Claude Legrand and David Weiss in their book; The Art and Practice of Leading sustainable Innovation in Your Organization . If leaders are committed to innovation, they must give their managers and employees at every level the skills to develop and manage innovative thinking skills.

Innovative and successful organizations utilize the skills and ideas from all its members and effective leadership for innovation encourages team spirit. Organizations must invest in their leaders and employees to ensure that they develop individual and teams innovative-thinking skills.

Organizations also need to design their culture and organizational practices to make innovation possible. As well, organizations require a well-developed, organization-wide innovation plan to ensure a focused approach to organizational innovation.

When innovation occurs in organizations, it becomes embedded. It also becomes an invisible competitive advantage, consistently creating new value for the organization. It is reflected in how individuals and teams think innovatively as they redefine complex issues, generate new ideas, discover solutions, and mitigate risks. The end result will be that organizations will close their innovation gaps, achieve sustainable customer value and employee engagement, and remain relevant in the future.

Leading an organization towards creativity and innovation involves setting realistic goals, having a shared sense of purpose, progress reviews and monitoring as well as learning from past experiences.

Lastly, it is important to note that innovation springs from a culture that encourages everyone to come forth with new ideas, however small, and then provides the time and resources to develop it. It comes from openness to trends and ideas within and outside the organization.

REAPING FROM KENYA’S DRY LANDS

In Kenya, dry lands cover more than 80% of the country, supporting 20% of the total population, 50% of the country’s livestock and 65% of its wildlife. These dry lands normally experience low annual precipitation and high levels of water evaporation while maintaining strong ecological resilience posing significant challenges to development, dry lands have unique natural potential that could be tapped to alleviate poverty.

The region however has great potential that can be of great importance not only to the locals but the country as a whole. This includes livestock and livestock products; hides and skins, meat, milk, ghee, bones, hooves, horns, which are raw materials for the leather industry in the country; nature-based products such as Aloe, Gum, beeswax herbal products, herbal tea, honey, tree dyes, fragrance, wild sisal, wild fruits; Minerals like asbestos, gold, quartz crystals, green and red garnet and the recent oil discovery in Turkana.

Livestock production in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) areas supply more than 40 % of the country’s total livestock demand and export to middle East countries potential  millions sustenance and income for pastoralists and employment opportunities.

The Jubilee government is committed to develop ASALs taking cognizance of the fact that 80% of Kenyan ASAL, hosting about ten million people majority of whom were women.

The Livestock industry contributes about Sh150 billion annually to the economy; the government will partner with the private sector to improve it. Moreover, livestock production and the dairy sector is a major economic and social activity which constitutes a significant part of the rural economy accounting for 14 per cent of the agricultural GDP.

The ASAL regions have some of the best forage trees, shrubs and herbs that support production of high quality honey.  Bee keeping is estimated to contribute significantly to improved livelihoods of most rural communities in Kenya. It contributes close to 4.3 billion Kenya Shillings from honey production alone, which is estimated at 25,000 Metric tonnes annually. Most dry lands also have several herbs and high value trees that are in use locally for medicine.

Export market

Some areas have potential for dry land farming, especially areas that border Turkana river where farmers have irrigated their land to provide fruits, vegetables, cereals and cash crops both for subsistence and market.

Dry lands have a huge potential for cultural tourism and ecotourism, which could be tapped to supplement incomes acquired from livestock keeping. Many of the people in these areas are endowed with unique traditional skills for handicrafts production that have a ready market among millions of tourists visiting East Africa. There are also opportunities in the export market.

For maximum benefit from this region we must overcome the challenges of lack of storage, cooling, production and agro processing facilities, poor transport and communication infrastructure and lack of market information and empower the locals through entrepreneurial skills to be able to transform their lives and become self-sufficient.

Value addition through construction of abattoirs will enable livestock keepers  to sell processed meat products rather than live animals as done traditionally therefore increase their earnings.

The opening up of the Northern Kenya, which comprises a big portion of the ASAL region in Kenya through the LAPPSET project will provide essential infrastructure required to achieve economic development to benefit the locals.

Use of appropriate technologies and value addition of the ASAL products will assure quality products and increase export earnings thereby increasing the land use of this region and its contribution to the national economy cake.

Most importantly, creating awareness on the great potential that this region holds will go a long way into sustainable use of these resources, together with instilling knowledge on how to utilize Science and Technology skills to exploit the great potential that this region offers for sustainable development.

            

FUNDING INNOVATIONS CAN SPUR OUR ECONOMIC GROWTH

Kenya is one of the emerging economies in Africa that is seen as a future star due to its vibrant democracy and economic growth. It has competent manpower necessary to carry out research collaborations and innovations. A more remarkable characteristic of that trend is that emerging markets have increased their innovation and R&D faster than high-income countries. These markets are also largely driving the growth in patent filings worldwide.

This infrastructure is taking shape with a lot of investments in roads and technology. Nairobi for example is seen as an innovation hub, especially in mobile money and applications development, and the mobile penetration in Kenya is high and there is access to broadband for high speed Internet.

The Kenya Vision 2030 recommends strengthened application of science, technology and innovation to raise productivity and efficiency levels across different sectors. It  identifies  the  critical  role  played  by innovation, research  and  development  (R&D)  in accelerating economic development in all the newly industrializing countries of the world. The Vision recognizes the role of science, technology and innovation (STI) in a modern economy, in which new knowledge plays a central role is in wealth creation, social welfare and international competitiveness.

In the Global Innovation Index 2013 (GII), Kenya is ranked at position 99 out of 142 in the world with Low-income economy in the Sub-Saharan Africa. Switzerland retains top spot in 2013. Both Switzerland (1^st) and Sweden (2^nd)'s performance reflects the fact that both countries are leaders in all pillars of the GII. The United Kingdom (3^rd) has a well-balanced innovation performance (ranking 4th in both input and output), in spite of a relatively low level of growth in labor productivity. The United States (5^th) continues to benefit from its strong education base (especially in terms of top-rank universities), and has seen strong increases in software spending and employment in knowledge-intensive services. Mauritius is leading in Sub-Saharan Africa and ranked 53^rd globally while Uganda tops the East African countries and ranked 3^rd in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Coherent strategies

The GII is a recognition of the key role that innovation serves as a driver of economic growth and prosperity. It is also an acknowledgement of the need for a broad horizontal vision of innovation that is applicable to both developed and emerging economies, with the inclusion of indicators that go beyond the traditional measures of innovation such as the level of research and development in a the country. The GII is therefore a valuable benchmarking tool to facilitate public-private dialogue, whereby policymakers, business leaders and other stakeholders can evaluate progress on a continual basis.

Kenya intends to become a knowledge-led economy wherein, the creation, adaptation and use of knowledge will be among the most critical factors for rapid economic growth. Experience from countries such as South Africa, Senegal, Ireland,  China and Chile illustrates that rapid progress can be made over relatively short periods of time by pursuing coherent strategies  and building the capabilities to create, access, and use knowledge. The positive effect of technological advances is reduction in the cost of transport and communication and created new opportunities for business and employment through the innovation output.

Innovation is a dominant factor for a country’s competitiveness. It fuels a countries growth, drives future success and is the engine that allows a country to sustain her viability in a global economy. Kenya must be able to create and commercialize a stream of new products and processes that extend the technology frontier. One way to get changes to take hold is to give recognition to original ideas thus creating a culture of innovation. Once a critical innovation threshold is reached investment money continues to fuel the engine, successful talent attracts more talent, and the cycle of innovation becomes endless.

For Kenya to improve its ranking, we should walk the talk on supporting innovators to be competitive internationally. Retain, attract and generate talent and combine them with local talent. We need to increase funding for the sector and strengthen the Public Private Partnership. It is also important to provide venture capital to fund incubation and start-ups for viable innovations.

We need to support and encourage the development of strong Intellectual Property (IP) protection system by filing patents and licenses domestically and internationally, maintaining strong internal policies and processes for protecting their own IP and establish a strong national IP regime.

The Kenyan Government committed itself to allocate 2% of its GDP to fund research in the country starting 2013/2014 financial year which is a good step forward for a low-income country. Highly ranked countries in the GII like Singapore, Switzerland, and Sweden contribute 2.1%, 2.9% and 3.4% of their GDP respectively and score higher in indicators including; political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory and business environment, knowledge and technological outputs. There is need for us to improve in this areas so that we can compete with them.

E-LEARNING CAN BRING THE WORLD TO KENYA SCHOOLS

The world is moving at an unimaginable speed in the area of information use and dissemination. The use of Information Technology, knowledge and information can be transferred and cross-fertilized in real time. Hence, the need to pay attention to the way information technology has changed the educational sector through the internet.

The use of new multimedia technologies and the Internet in learning is seen as a means to improve accessibility, efficiency and quality of learning by facilitating access to information resources and services as well as remote exchanges and collaboration. Nonetheless, by the middle of the 20th century the growth in technology and applications even in the field of education became unavoidable to be ignored. The world of technology continued to grow and today the whole world has become a global village. By the beginning of the 21st millennium educational technology has stretched educational boundaries and created new ones on a daily basis. One of these new and rapidly expanding boundaries is e-learning which is offering tremendous advantage to education sector.

E-learning in this sense is the use of network technologies to create, foster, deliver, and facilitate learning, anytime and anywhere. It is also the use of internet and digital technologies to create experiences that educate a young generation and is of great help when they grow up. It has the potential to revolutionize the way we teach and how we learn.

E-learning has therefore become a new paradigm and philosophy in education with a mission to serve as a development platform for present-day society based on knowledge. The TVET, University Education, and Basic Education acts advocate for the use of ICT in education.

 It is evident that the concept of e-learning is considered to be very attractive as a new learning model whose effect will be a positive one to the development of education in Kenya with all its potentialities.

In addition to that, there is need to build and fully equip Science labs in secondary schools in each county. We must realize that it is difficult to get the best result from poor facilities. This is why laboratory facilities in our schools must be revamped to foster e-learning.

E-learning must be built on infrastructural background with highly effective internet connectivity to succeed. More so, to guarantee an effective learning system it is therefore, fundamental to implement self-sustaining Internet and computer training, which will eventually allow teachers and learners to keep pace with latest development and technologies.

Kenya should ensure the availability of accessible, efficient, reliable, and affordable ICT services. The government to encourage the use of ICT in schools, colleges, universities, Technical & Vocational Education and Training  (TVET) and other educational institutions in the country so as to improve the quality of teaching and learning.

There are strategies that must be used to promote the development of e-learning resources such as the need to facilitate public-private partnerships to mobilize resources in order to support e-learning initiatives, promote the development of an integrated e-learning curriculum to support ICT in education and promote distance education and virtual institutions particularly in higher education and training.

The government should ensure that ICT in education sector is easily accessed, properly funded and adequate. Also, the cost of development of interactive e-learning contents should be considered. We should also embrace ICT as a medium of instruction and management tool, build capacity for teachers, and include ICT Curriculum at ECD and primary levels.  

E-learning will ensure that training is enhanced through use of multiple media and trainee interaction and hence boosting the level of education as well as linking learners to other content, experts, and peers.

The power of ICT to connect teachers and learners to the acquisition of knowledge they need wherever that knowledge exists is harnessed through e-learning hence it’s the right way for this country.

Moreover, we must prioritize mainstreaming ICTs into the teaching and learning processes in the current Kenyan education system. There is also need for alternative and innovative methods of learning, which can make education available beyond lecture halls in Kenya, not limited to a particular time, pace, or space.

REAPING MORE FROM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN EAST AFRICA THROUGH HARMONY

The Eastern Africa region is greatly endowed.  What with the diversity of resources including natural, agricultural, big water bodies and increasing human capital. Yet amidst all these wealth we still face the challenges of food insecurity, climate change access to education, clean water, and affordable energy and health services.

Competitiveness is increasingly important to succeed in the global economy and not only for individual countries but also for regions.  We now have economic blocks. It is widely appreciated that investment and application of science and technology is key to solve these challenges and more besides promoting socioeconomic development. How then do we harness ST&I for region competitiveness?

Through concerted efforts, East Africa region must improve its competitiveness to enhance the region’s economy and improve the living standard of estimated 148 million inhabitants and not be left behind in the globalization wave. We cannot afford to work in isolation; it’s high time we realize that our boundaries should not separate us and must stimulate economic growth by sharing the available resources. Thought the different member states have laid down strategies and road maps on where they would like to be economically, politically and socially, it is also important to think regionally.

                The East Africa Community formed in 1948, collapsed in 1977 and re established in 1999 should be strengthened and actualized so that we do no not have it as a treaty on paper alone.  The good will is there as science and technology is one of the modalities laid out in the treaty as an important component to regional integration and fostering economic development. The East Africa Science and Technology Commission (EASTECO) hosted by Rwanda was further established to promote regional development and application of research Science and Technology.

What modalities will ensure that the integration spirit is deepened and that we all achieve a win win situation through the treaty?

                 I believe that human resource development and especially in science and technology could help the region leap frog to catch up with the rest of the world.  This can be achieved through harmonized capacity building programmes.  The region boosts of an Interuniversity Council of East Africa with membership of Universities in the 5 member states. The Council needs to be strengthened to offer capacity building opportunities across the region through harmonized programmes and develop competitive world class universities. Also the establishment of centres of excellence will help curb prevalent brain drain in this region and also attract enrolments from other parts of the continent.  Integration will also be deepened though student and faculty exchange programmes.

Another critical area is research. Research in Agriculture, Human and animal health, mineral exploration besides other critical areas can be much effective when resources are pooled together.  In this regard, we need to benchmark with each other, share our experience and expertise, infrastructure and facilities. This is the only way we can enhance the application of research outputs into goods and services and foster innovation. Likewise it is easier to attract international funding.

Having highlighted on the vast resources available to this great region, I believe that we can market ourselves better as a block rather than going it alone as individual countries. Therefore we must endeavor to increase competitiveness of exports from this region through value addition.

  

Partnerships will help us avoid duplication of efforts and maximize the utilization o available resources, infrastructure and expertise to fast track development in the Eastern block. It is therefore imperative that we enhance existing fora for cooperation and examine the need for new mechanisms in order to improve the coordination and information sharing process. We indeed have a lot to learn from each other and fora that link scientists and policy makers in the region must be encouraged to bring in the diversity of ideas through dialogue sharing and make science technology and innovation impact felt in the lives of our inhabitants.

Promoting the spirit of undugu and brotherhood is the sure way of ensuring concerted efforts and investments towards sustainable socioeconomic development in this great region.

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WE  NEED TO EDUCATE THE SOCIETY ON GENETIC MODIFICATION TECHNOLOGY

There is a growing debate about the potential value of modern biotechnology, and in particular of genetically modified organisms in helping to achieve benefits and opportunities envisioned in food security, health, alternative sources of energy, safe environment and industrial grow. The challenge facing policy makers is not only to understand what genetically modification (GM) technology can do but also to establish the threats this technology presents. While, the potential of GM technology is enormous, there are 3 critical issues: first, whether or not the GM technologies offer sustainable food security option; second, what the implications are for biosafety in human health and well-being; and third, the extent of existing capacity to undertake research, effectively detect, monitor and evaluate GM products and their use. The challenge for policy makers is how to respond to the uncertainty about relative opportunities and genuine concerns on perceived threats posed by GM technologies.

Biotechnology has been in existence for decades. The technology uses principles and techniques that have been practiced for thousands of years such as production of beer, wine, bread, yoghurt and cheese. Traditional animal and plant breeding techniques are also a form of pre-industrial biotechnology. The modern biotechnology becomes special since it makes the above processes faster and more precise. Researchers can take a single gene from a plant or animal cell and insert it into another plant or animal cell of a different species (commonly known as transgenic). In the natural settings this will take several years to happen through mutations and is what is known as evolution. Modern biotechnology therefore brings changes that occur slowlyduring evolution in traditional selective breeding to a faster and more specific way.  New species of plants and animals are produced by natural modification during reproduction and accumuleover many generations.

In compliance with the International Conventions and Treaties, Kenya has also set a firm legal systems and frameworks to safeguard her biodiversity and safety of her people and environment as modern biotechnology research and development progresses in the Country.  The evidence is by the enactment of Biosafety Bill into law in 2009; Establishment of the National Biosafety Authority to regulate activities of GMOs in 2010; Appointment of the NBA Board, 2010 for oversight on safe research and application of modern biotechnology in Kenya and Development and gazettment of Biosafety regulations on contained use, environmental release, Import, export and transit and labelling in 2012. It is important to state that research on GMOs in Kenya operate under these regulations and indeed the Kenyan researchers not only adhere to the international laws to which Kenya is signatory but also observe Kenyan regulations concerning the research, use and importation of GMO products.

Modified living organisms result in products such as drugs, vaccines, food and feeds. Modern Biotechnology techniques and products applicable in the health sector that may be of value in developing countries include, molecular diagnostics, recombinant vaccines, vaccine and drug delivery techniques, sequencing pathogens, genomes, microbicides, bioinformatics, recombinant therapeutic proteins and combinatorial chemistry. Other areas of modern biotechnology that do not necessarily involve genetic engineering include the use of enzymes and bacteria in a wide range of applications, such as: waste management, industrial production, food production, remediation of contaminated land. The underlying principle of the production and use of genetically modified organism (GMO) products is in the safety of their users be they human or animals. For this reason both laboratory and field testing during development are highly controlled and subjected to required regulatory rigors under both international and national laws.

Kenya has invested in research and development in modern Biotechnology. For example KARI and  KEMRI have projects in modern biotechnology producing products and delivery of services.  The Centre for Biotechnology Research and Development (CBRD) of KEMRI include 5 research laboratories, all equipped and mandated to undertake basic and biotechnology-related research on human diseases in Kenya, with the overall goal to contribute in the improvement of human health and welfare.

Globally many GM crops have been commercialized in more than 29 countries with a total acreage of 395 million by 2011. These include, Maize, Soybean, Cotton, potato, Canola, Tomato, Beetroots, Papaya, Squash, Rice, alfalfa. The traits that have been included in most of these crops are mainly pest disease or herbicide resistance, and nutritional enrichment (Biofortication). Kenya has not yet commercialized any GM crop but have several crops at various stages of development by KARI in collaboration with local and International partners. Some of the crops include: Bt cotton to be commercialized in 2014; Drought tolerant maize (Water efficient Maize for Africa-WEMA)  under confined field trial (CFT) at KARI Kiboko; Virus resistant Cassava at KARI Alupe and Mtwapa field stations, Cassava enhanced with protein, Vit A, Zinc and Iron under trials (CFT) in KARI Alupe, Sorghum with enhanced protein, Vit A, Zinc and Iron at KARI Kiboko under  trials (CFT) , Nitrogen Efficient Maize (IMAS) whose  confined field trials are targeted to start  in 2013. In livestock sector, ILRI in Collaboration with KARI are studying possibilities of producing a cow  with tolerance to trypanosomiasis; Recombinant viral vaccine for Rift valley fever, Lumpy skin disease, in cattle, Sheep and Goat and is targeted for trials in 2013.

Application of biotechnology on human health is accepted the world over as source for cheap but safe generic drugs. The principle for drugs production remain basically the same even with food crops involving rigorous laboratory testing and stringent laboratory and field safety studies before regulatory authorities can allow their use in both humans and animals. There are a number of drugs based on monoclonal antibodies for treating various diseases such as rituximab for B-cell lymphomas, trasfuzumab (for Her-2 positive breast cancer) which are produced by GM technology. Vaccines include Hepatitis B, new a cellular pertussis, pneumococcal, meningococcal, staphylococcal vaccine and Recombinant DNA vaccine for HIV (trials). Hormones include insulin for management of diabetes, tamoxifen for estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) for management of infertility in women, growth hormones in meat production (Livestock and fish).

The recent reports linking GMOs to Cancer in the rat model has attracted a lot of critique globally and is alarmist to say the least. Kenya has not yet commercialized any GMO crops, but that notwithstanding, countries that commercialized the GMO crops over 20 years ago do not have high cancer prevalence as is being reported in the country. Currently, Cancer is estimated to be the third leading cause of death in Kenya, after infectious diseases and cardiovascular diseases it is unlikely that this has any association use of GMO products. In many cases, these cancer have been associated with the rapidly changing lifestyle that our people have adopted, the high infectious agents that predispose the population to high risk human papilloma and HIV viruses, high malnutrition among many maladies. Given that Kenya is largely a grain deficient nation, safe application of modern biotechnology in food production should not be scuttled on the altar of un-informed public opinion but should be based on sober and structured research-based discussions. Otherwise the country risk of jeopardizing research, conflict and drought relief as well as benefits that accrues from GMO technology including drought tolerance and bio-fortification among others.It is important therefore to assure Kenyans that just like most generic drugs are safe, most agricultural products developed following the laid down due processes and in observation of the internationally accepted human biosafety regulations are also safe for their use. In my opinion more public awareness id required and society must be educated on these sciences to make a decision on what to consume. Above all we must demistify such sciences, but must not be afraid to embrace it tackle food insecurity.