Wajackoyah: If Gov’t imports GMOs, Kenyan men will grow breasts and women beards

Roots party leader Prof. George Wajackoyah has opposed the government’s plan to import Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) as a means of tackling the hunger being witnessed in various parts of the country.

Wajackoyah, speaking on Monday at the Emuhaya youth talent, claimed that GMO foods were banned in Mexico due to certain strange negative effects.

The former presidential aspirant went ahead to make an unfounded claim that men who consumed GMO crops in Mexico developed breasts, while the women grew beards.

He further added that, in the same line, if the Kenyan government goes ahead to import GMOs to the country then the same fate would befall the country's citizens.

“Saa hizi mnaambiwa mambo ya GMO…Mexico wamekataa mambo ya GMO maanake walifanya research, wanaume karibu mia tano huko Mexico walimea matiti kwa kula hiyo GMO na wanawake wakamea ndevu,” he alleged.

“Hiyo mambo ya GMO nayo tumekataa, lakini ikiwa mtakula hiyo GMO, wanawake watamea ndevu na wanaume watamea matiti.”

Mexico in October this year announced that it was considering direct agreements with farmers in the United States, Argentina and Brazil to secure non-genetically modified yellow corn imports, with the country's deputy agriculture minister saying that a 2024 ban on GM corn would not be amended.

Deputy Agriculture Minister Victor Suarez said Mexico is on track to halve its U.S. imports of yellow corn, used primarily for livestock feed, when the ban comes into effect in 2024 via increased domestic production.

The United States later threatened legal action against Mexico's plan toban imports of genetically modified corn in 2024, saying it would cause huge economic losses and significantly impact bilateral trade.

The Kenyan High Court in November this year barred the government from importing or distributing GMO crops and food until a case filed by the Kenyan Peasants League, a social movement, is heard and decided.

The petitioners claimed that GMO foods and crops posed a deadly health risk to Kenyans, particularly the poor and those with low incomes, and opposed their importation, cultivation, and consumption.

High Court Judge Mugure Thande in December extended orders stopping the ministries of Agriculture and Trade from gazetting any directives regarding GMOs or acting on the Cabinet dispatch that announced the lifting of the ban on GMOs.

Justice Thande observed that the court adopts the precautionary principle as per the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety which aims to minimize potentially harmful effects on the environment and human health, while balancing potential benefits to agriculture and trade.