Can GMO Help Kwale Farmers Tackle Food Insecurity?
By Caroline Katana
For years, genetically modified organisms (GMO) have been surrounded by questions, suspicion and competing claims in Kenya.
In Kwale, a new conversation is taking shape—one that is shifting attention from rumours about genetically modified food to a more practical question: Can biotechnology help farmers produce more food in the face of pests, changing weather and declining yields?
That question brought officials from the National Biosafety Authority (NBA), agricultural technology practitioners and community leaders to Kinondo for a public awareness campaign aimed at giving residents information about GMO technology.
NBA Chairman David Wamati said biotechnology should be viewed as one of several tools Kenya can use to strengthen food security rather than as a replacement for traditional farming methods.
He pointed to indigenous crops, irrigation, better roads and markets, and improved post-harvest storage as other measures needed to ensure food reaches households.
“The methods of finding food are many ,adding that GMO technology is one of the approaches that can help Kenya respond to food production challenges, " He said.
For farmers, some of those challenges are already being felt in the fields.
Wamati said declining yields, pests and changing weather conditions are among the challenges affecting agricultural production, making technologies that can address some of these constraints part of the wider food-security conversation.
He cited Bt cotton as one genetically modified crop already being grown by Kenyan farmers.
According to Wamati, farmers in areas such as Lamu have reported improved yields and benefits from Bt cotton compared with conventional cotton.
The experience, he said, demonstrates why farmers should have access to information about different technologies and be allowed to understand their potential benefits and limitations.
But increasing food production is not only about introducing new seed varieties.
Dr Ann Karimi, CEO of the National Biosafety Authority, said Kenya needs several interventions working together, including irrigation and reducing post-harvest losses.
“GMO is just one of the other methods that contribute to having food in Kenya,” Karimi said.
Her position also places the regulator at the centre of an important part of the debate: safety.
Karimi said the NBA's responsibility is to ensure that genetically modified products approved for consumption meet the required safety standards.
The authority, she said, acts as a referee rather than telling Kenyans what they should eat.
“Our work is to ensure that when you choose to eat it, you eat food that is safe, clean and good for your health,” she said.
This regulatory role is particularly important in a debate where scientific information often competes with rumours.
During the Kwale engagement, Wamati rejected claims that GMO food causes men to develop breasts, describing such claims as misinformation.
He said products undergo scientific assessment, including consideration of nutritional content, possible effects on human health and environmental safety before approval.
For communities, however, access to such information remains central to making informed choices.
Mahmud Baroh, Convener of Kinondo Walk Movement, said many residents had heard conflicting information about GMO technology but had few opportunities to directly question people responsible for regulating it.
His organisation partnered with the NBA and Kataru Concepts Africa Farming Technologies to bring the discussion closer to residents.
“We have heard different information. Now we are hearing from the horse’s mouth,” Baroh said.
The movement brought together residents including young people, women and older people for the awareness walk and discussions.
Baroh said the organisation wanted to provide a platform where residents could ask difficult questions and receive explanations before forming their own views.
For James Kamuye Kataru, Team Leader at Kataru Concepts Africa Farming Technologies, access to agricultural information can itself be part of the solution.
His organisation works with farming communities through e-extension systems, producing agricultural information in English, Kiswahili and local languages.
Kataru said the organisation currently has more than 400 agricultural videos translated into Kenyan languages, allowing farmers to access information in languages they understand.
He said his own position on GMO technology changed after receiving training and learning more about biotechnology.
“I had a lot of misinformation. I resisted many things because of what I had heard. But when I was trained, I understood,” he said.
Kataru believes wider use of appropriate agricultural technologies could help Kenya reduce reliance on food imports by increasing domestic production, with the possibility of producing surpluses for export in some crops.
The conversation in Kwale, however, did not suggest that GMO technology alone can solve Kenya's food-security challenges.
Instead, the discussions pointed to a combination of interventions—from better seeds and biotechnology to irrigation, indigenous crops, markets, storage and access to reliable agricultural information.
For farmers, the practical question is ultimately whether these interventions can translate into higher and more reliable production, lower losses and better incomes.
For regulators, it means ensuring that technologies reaching the market are properly assessed for safety.
And for communities, it means having enough credible information to ask questions and make informed decisions.
As Kenya searches for ways to strengthen food production, the emerging lesson from Kwale is that the solution may not lie in choosing one farming method over another, but in giving farmers access to safe technologies, reliable information and the wider support they need to produce enough food.
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