The Kenya Parliament should either amend existing laws restricting trade between the 47 Counties or enact new laws, which will make it easier for Kenyan businessmen and businesswomen to do business between counties unrestricted. The Kenya Government has been unable to buy maize in Rift Valley and Eldoret, where farmers have expressed their fears over the maize which has remained in their stores due to lack of market. This year, they will even have more problems after harvesting current maize from their farms.
Before 2010, trade all over Kenya was done easily than it is today. Kenya businessmen and businesswomen used to travel from one corner of the Nation to the other without any barriers. But since 2010 when counties with their own laws and regulations were established, the movement of Kenya’s businessmen and businesswomen became difficult. Because of those trade restrictions, Kenyans in Turkana and other parts of Kenya have died out of hunger despite the abundance of food in Rift Valley and Western Kenya.
Those business restrictions between Counties in Kenya- have not only created room for the importation of GMOs but have also been responsible for the deaths of many children and their parents in Turkana and elsewhere in Kenya due to hunger. If such restrictions were not in place, Kenya’s businessmen and women would have bought the maize from farmers in Western Kenya and the Rift Valley. They would have transported it to Turkana, Kiambu, and elsewhere in Kenya, where Kenyans are hard hit by hunger. To save Kenyans from the dangers of imported GMO foods, the Kenya Parliament should convene as a matter of urgency to amend and enact new laws that will enable Kenyan businessmen and businesswomen to travel from County to County without restrictions. If that is done quickly, Kenyans will be safe from the dangers of GMO foods now and in the future.
Dr. Isaac Newton Kinity
Counselor and Human Rights Activist &
Former Secretary General
Kenya Civil Servants Union.
Connecticut, USA.
