Tuesday

Parliament soon to pass Biosafety Bill

By Henry Neondo

THE Government is to table the Biosafety Bill before the end of the year, Information assistant minister, Koigi wa Wamwere said adding that it "would have a fair hearing from parliamentarians this time round".

Koigi, who spoke yesterday in Nairobi during the opening of a three-day African Biotechnology Stake-holders Forum's regional media workshop said the move was aimed at improving food production in the country using appropriate technologies.

He said the Bill is expected to receive a lot of support from legislators when it is tabled in Parliament by the Ministry of Agriculture, adding that the country was in dire need of it.

Koigi said Africa was faced with many challenges but decried the low pace at which these were being addressed. “Africa is the way it is because it has chosen to be too slow in finding solutions to problems faced by its people,” he said.

He noted that very little has changed since Africa overcame colonisation.

Koigi said at this point in time, Africa needs to be in position to develop scientific inventions that will provide solutions to her problems.

He said nations like the US, China and India were prospering because of the use of technology.

He said Kenya continued to suffer from bad policies that were put in place by the previous governments.

The assistant minister challenged journalists to report more on issues that directly affected the lives of the people like environment, drought and famine among others.

He observed that there was need to train journalists on reporting scientific issues, noting that members of the fourth estate had a duty of informing the people on issues that affected their lives directly.

Koigi further challenged scientists and researchers to interpret their findings in local languages and channel the same through rural-based media to enable people at the grassroots who are the consumers of the information to be able to decipher the same.

He noted that the controversial genetically modified foods should not scare experts from conducting research works that promoted food production.

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