Highly hazardous pesticides are being distributed to farmers in the country, a situation that has led to rising cases of cancer in Kenya, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Gladys Boss Shollei has claimed.
Shollei protested that the same products being shipped to Kenya and sold to unsuspecting farmers have long been banned by countries in the West. She wondered why authorities in Kenya are still reluctant to get them off the shelves despite known damages caused by the same products, especially to people’s health.
“The issue of pesticides is a big problem in the country. It is known by all levels of government. A document called “The Pesticide Atlas” that was developed by 20 scientists from The University of Nairobi confirmed that 267 pesticides that are banned in Europe and America are in use in Kenya,” said Shollei in Parliament on Tuesday afternoon
According to Shollei, Kenya’s Pest Products Control Board is supposed to make a list of approved pesticides but has declined to do so, leaving the said toxic products eligible for sale.
Shollei who has been pushing for the withdrawal of the same products from the Kenyan market insists that members of the Pest Products Control Board have failed and endangered the lives of Kenyans.
The Uasin Gishu County Woman Representative believes that the Board and the Ministry of Agriculture have been compromised by the Agrochemical companies to allow the use of the killer products in Kenya.
The Deputy Speaker further wondered why the manufacturers of the said products, in the United States and Europe, are allowed to export them to countries like Kenya fully aware that they are dangerous to human beings.
“In the United States, the courts awarded a farmer who developed cancer as a result of using Roundup (herbicide that is also in circulation in Kenya with a different trade name) and he was paid USD 250 Million, 20 years ago. That is how seriously it is taken in the US,” she said
“These countries (selling pesticides) have us where they want. They sell us cancer-causing pesticides, and then they sell us cancer drugs to treat our people and the equipment for treating them. It is parliament and the Ministry of Agriculture that have failed the people of Kenya because it is confirmed that they cause cancer and other non-communicable diseases,”
Shollei told Parliament that her campaign against the circulation of the banned pesticides was not received well by certain quotas. She now wants Parliament to treat the issue as a matter of urgency and save Kenyans from cancer that is now widespread. According to Shollei, MPs will be as guilty if they fail to act.
“The agrochemical companies are extremely powerful. When I was rallying the country against these pesticides, I was threatened with death. It is big money. If we don’t act as Parliament, we continue to kill our people,”
“I beg MPs to take this more seriously. In as much as we want to invest in cancer treatment, we are allowing cancer to come in,” the Deputy Speaker appealed to fellow lawmakers.
