National Biosafety Authority in drive to fight misinformation, disinformation on GMOs

Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology VC Prof Solomon Shibairo and acting National Biosafety Authority CEO Dr Anne Karemi signing a memorandum of agreement at University on Friday /IMAGE /HILTON OTENYO

The National Biosafety Authority has signed a collaborative agreement with the Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST) to help fight misinformation and disinformation on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO).

Authority acting Chief Executive Officer Dr Anne Karemi and MMUST Vice-Chancellor Prof Solomon Shibairo signed a Memorandum of agreement on the partnership in Kakamega on Friday.

Karemi said the authority is engaging in collaboration with institutions of higher learning, starting with Masinde Muliro to develop manpower and share knowledge with the community in the journey of GMO.

“We expect that this collaboration will support our capacity building initiatives across the country and will enable us join forces in matters research and resource mobilisation where proposal writing is concerned,” Karemi said.

Karemi said the collaboration framework will leverage on the Authority’s resources in educating the public on matters biosafety and biosecurity to enable the public to benefit from the vast knowledge at MMUST which is expected to slowly shape the perceptions that put away issues of misinformation and disinformation.

“This will promote consumer choice and become a solution where food security is concerned,” she added.

She said that lack of knowledge on issues around GMOs by the public remains a major challenge that has created room for a lot of misinformation and disinformation on the sector.

“That’s what we trying to deal with through this collaboration and hope this will be able to attract other institutions in our journey to develop manpower because the Journey of GMO,” she said.

She said that the authority has also been set back by some court cases which have not been entirely very positive for the organisation.

“It’s our hope that as we slowly resolve those challenges, we’ll be able to push GMO as an option that is available to Kenyans and they can chose from to address issues of food security,” Karemi said.

Shibairo said that MMUST will train more manpower on issues of biosafety and biosecurity under the agreement.

He said that the results of research will enable the country to be biologically safe.

“We’re working closely with the community and they are improving through the uptake of research findings in matters health and agriculture where the community is now using modern pest control methods,” he said.

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