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Seal all loopholes abetting bio-piracy

Thursday, February 2nd, 2023 00:00 | By
Baobab tree PHOTO/Courtesy

The decision by Kituo Cha Sheria to sue the government over alleged uprooting of old baobab trees in Kilifi is a welcome move, and should, hopefully, bear good fruit when the case is heard and determined.

Even so, bio-piracy remains rampant and owing to the technicalities of patenting plants of medicinal value, unscrupulous government officials are making a killing from issuing illegal permits to harvest valuable fauna, denying the government and Kenyans the much-needed revenue that could otherwise be invested in growing our economy or finding ways of conserving valuable natural resources.

Bio-pirates illegally appropriate or commercially exploit the country’s biological resources and associated traditional knowledge, often through shadowy pharmaceutical, cosmetic or food processing companies. Unlicensed individuals and institutions, often times without the requisite permits to do so, harvest, test and export bio resources without knowledge or permission of authorities, and usually with the help of corrupt government officials, who imperil Kenya’s natural heritage for personal gain.

Processes such as issuance of Environmental Impact Assessment reports and permits allowing individuals or companies to transfer plant species are always shrouded in secrecy and are often characterised by illegalities. This, however, does not have to be so as there ought to be clear guidelines on how such permits ought to be issued and where the law allows, they should be uploaded on a public portal for scrutiny. It has not helped that legislative frameworks to protect bio resources and traditional knowledge  remain weak.

International patenting systems have for long not favoured African traditional knowledge on medicinal plant usage, leaving this intellectual knowledge and wealth without legal protection. This has left farmers and traditional knowledge keepers unable to economically exploit this knowledge, leaving the resources at the mercies of unscrupulous companies and individuals, some of them foreigners who end up exporting the knowledge without proper authorisation.

The bottom-line therefore is, government officials ought to always remember that knowledge in the African context was not individual, but communally owned and exploited for public good rather than private gain. The government ought to strategically represent the interests of Kenyans by commissioning professionals to represent Kenya’s interests at the various international patenting fora.

This is in addition to strengthening legal protection of such knowledge and plant products. Kenya needs robust intellectual property laws, which must seal the loopholes that abet bio-piracy.

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