The East African Community partner states have failed to strike consensus on the growing and use of genetically modified crops, with only Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda vouching for the use of GM technology to boost food security and industrial development.

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Jane Nalunga, the Executive Director of the Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute in Uganda, said there is no country that is ready for GMOs. 

“The reason that they are giving in is because we are hungry. But we are hungry because of climate change, lack of rain, our farmers are not getting the right seeds, and their soils are degraded.”

But Dr Tim Njagi, a senior researcher at the Tegemeo Institute of Technology, argues that misinformation is to blame for the current impasse on GM technology and products.

“We are in a regional market and basically that means that we cannot do something in isolation. If we have food coming from one region, it must move to other regions,” he said. “For us to be food secure, we must produce enough, and it has to be affordable.”

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