Page 81 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 18

Health & Healing

For as we can already see in
at some point. But I do pray when our modern world, science crops without using chemicals to
we realize we need to stop, it will control pests and diseases? Second.
not be too late for everyone. without conscience, left in the How, on God’s earth, will a people
who call themselves researchers or
It is becoming very real to me that hands of those also without scientists put the loss of money
we are not just dealing with the conscience, is nothing but a first as against the loss of human
physical madness of the avaricious lives? Sometimes I wonder if people
tendencies of people who want to weapon of mass destruction smoke dry monkey poop before
make money by all means, but much and population extermination. making decisions and utterances
more with the spiritual dimensions that clearly do not make any sense.
of things. For even those that claim
that spiritual things are not real, these chemicals would be detrimen- Just so you know and understand a
are only speaking from ignorance, tal to food security, forcing Kenya few things going on with the issue
because the root of science itself is to rely on imports to meet its annual of chemicals in farming practices,
found in what spirit beings revealed needs.” let me share a short excerpt from
to humans when they brought the an article I copied online about the
required and accepted rituals before Dr Njagi said the country would thousands of lawsuits against the
such spirits. I will not go further lose an equivalent of 16 percent in makers of a herbicide called Round-
with this. terms of the gross domestic prod- up. In case you don’t know, Round-
uct should farmers abandon the use up is one of the most used but most
A short while ago, I saw an arti- of pesticides and herbicides in their notorious agro-chemicals that have
cle with the title: Kenya Risks farming practices. been banned in other places, but still
Sh150bn Loss In Pesticides Ban. being imported into Afrika, just like
“If the ban is effected, then Ken- Ms Shollei pointed out.
Now, let me give you the context of ya will have no alternative but to
what this article is about and then become a net importer of food to Monsanto started manufacturing Round-
leave you to make your own deci- meet the needs of its people as a up in the mid-1970s, but it wasn’t until
sion if the title itself and the con- substantial amount of food will be 1996 that product sales really took off.
tent of the article are not tools of lost,” said Dr Njagi in a meeting That’s when the company started market-
deception and a poison to the health organised by Science Kenya Africa. ing seeds that were genetically modified to
and wellness of humans. (You can resist glyphosate. This meant Roundup
read the article at the link above). The researcher argued that limiting could be used on and around crops, orna-
farmers’ access to necessary tech- mental plants, and flowers, which could
The article points to a Bill in the nologies would risk livelihoods and continue to thrive while weeds and other
Kenyan Parliament that a woman compromise food security. invasive kinds of vegetation were eliminat-
named Gladys Boss Shollei, the ed. For now, Roundup can be found on the
Uasin Gishu Women’s Representa- In response to these events going shelves of most “big box” home improve-
tive is sponsoring, which is aimed on, Pest Control Products Board ment centers and neighborhood hardware
at banning the use of at least 200 general manager Paul Ngaruiya said stores—favored by farmers, groundskeep-
agro-chemicals locally. In her sub- they have started reviewing more ers, and backyard gardeners alike.
mission in parliament, Ms Shollei than 200 pesticides used in the
argues that the cancer-causing country following a request by the In 2018, German pharmaceutical giant
herbicides and pesticides banned in National Assembly in the light of Bayer bought Roundup creator and
the United States and Europe were the petition before Parliament on manufacturer Monsanto, and ended up
still being imported to and sold in these chemicals use. inheriting all of Monsanto’s emerging
Kenya, despite the health risks they Roundup-related legal problems. The
pose to the people. Now, just to ask two questions. safety of pesticides and herbicides has been
First, how were our Afrikan ances- under scrutiny for decades, but in 2015 the
But here is what Timothy Njagi, a tors planting their crops and making World Health Organization’s Interna-
senior researcher at Egerton-based harvests that served their commu- tional Agency for Research on Cancer
Tegemeo Institute of Research and nities every year, in the very tropics (IARC) announced a new classification
Policy, Kenya, said about the sub- where the researchesr are claiming of glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic”
mission in parliament. “The ban on farmers cannot afford to grow (meaning it likely causes cancer).

WWW.MSINGIAFRIKAMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 18 | DECEMBER 2021 81