The National Biosafety Authority (NBA) and the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) have agreed to look for closer cooperation on agricultural biotechnology, biosafety regulation and public awareness of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), after their chairs met in Yerevan, Armenia, on the sidelines of the 17th UN biodiversity conference (COP17).
NBA chairman David Wamatsi met AATF chairman Prof Aggrey Ambali during the conference, which runs from October 19 to 30 and is reviewing progress on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. NBA Acting Chief Executive Dr Ann Karimi accompanied Wamatsi. The two bodies identified public education, building the capacity of regulators and reviews of policies governing emerging biotechnologies as areas to work on.
The NBA is the national regulator of GMOs in Kenya, set up under the Biosafety Act of 2009, and acts as the national competent authority for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. Its mandate is to ensure the safety of human and animal health and to protect the environment.
The AATF, which has supported modern biotechnology research in Kenya for years, has said it would continue to back joint initiatives with the Ministry of Agriculture. Karimi has previously said the authority plans a public awareness campaign across the country to help Kenyans understand its role as the GMO regulator.
The NBA also asked the AATF to support its international scientific conference, scheduled for February 1 to 4, 2027, in Nairobi under the theme “From Innovation to Impact: Harnessing Safe Biotechnology for Sustainable Agriculture and Health.
The meeting will cover biotechnology for food security and nutrition, emerging technologies beyond GMOs, responsive biosafety regulation, climate resilience and biodiversity, and building public trust through communication.
The authority has invited scientists, regulators, policymakers, industry and academics to submit abstracts. Wamatsi has said the conference will let African countries learn from nations such as China, Argentina, Brazil and the United States, and that effective regulation should go hand in hand with scientific progress.
Speaking at the opening session of COP17, Wamatsi said Africa must play a bigger role in global biodiversity and biosafety decisions that affect its development priorities.
