Kenya has asked for more farming because food costs are going up and the weather is getting worse. But environmentalists warn that weak pesticide rules and pressure from the US agricultural lobby are putting farmers and the general population at risk. President William Ruto has endorsed this ambition with a farmer-support program he claims is aimed at “putting the shame of hunger behind us once and for all.” Ruto has stated that Kenya has to become agriculturally self-reliant to save millions of dollars in food imports. The Route to Food initiative works to make Kenya more food-secure. In 2020, over 75% of the agrochemicals used in Kenya were classified as Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs). HHPs are very harmful to both humans and the environment.
US agrochemical influence in Kenya:
Paraquat, produced by the massive Swiss agro-technology company Syngenta, is one of those HHPs. It is increasingly being connected to Parkinson’s disease, an irreversible degenerative brain condition. Paraquat is still permitted in Kenya despite being outlawed in the EU.
An inquiry, headed by Lighthouse Reports and incorporating reporting from The New Humanitarian and other global media platforms, has discovered that a “reputation management” company, partially supported by US taxpayers, has been covertly undermining initiatives to shield populations in certain regions of Asia and Africa from the health risks associated with dangerous pesticides.
The Missouri-based business, v-Fluence, describes itself as offering “risk communications,” “proprietary data mining,” and “intelligence gathering” among other services. Donna Evitts and her son James Evitts, both with Parkinson’s disease, have named the business as defendants in a US court case against Syngenta. They believe that paraquat was used for many years. It is alleged that v-Fluence assisted the Chinese-owned company in obfuscating information about the herbicide’s hazards for more than 20 years.
Agrochemical impact on farming
According to an inquiry, v-Fluence has been awarded more than $400,000 in contracts by the US government to carry out such work aimed at “neutralizing” – as the US complaint put it – opponents of “modern agriculture approaches” throughout Asia and Africa. This included setting up a secret, members-only website where powerful allies and staff from pesticide companies could obtain personal data on hundreds of people worldwide who were thought to pose a risk to the interests of the business. Like other nations in the Global South, specialists misdiagnose, Kenya has a poor level of awareness of Parkinson’s disease. There aren’t many specialists; misdiagnosis happens frequently, and stigma prevents people from getting the medication they need to stop the disease’s development. John Kiunjuri didn’t give it much thought when he initially observed that his hands were trembling. He had worked as a commercial farmer in his mid-40s in Meru, eastern Kenya, cultivating flowers and vegetables for export. He didn’t first see the link, but part of his job involved mixing herbicides without gloves or a mask.
Government and regulation challenges
The contract expired in 1998, and the vibrations got worse. He was unable to handle a teacup by 2016. After finally diagnosing Parkinson’s disease, a physician at Nanyuki General Hospital informed him that handling agrochemicals may have contributed to the illness. Regarding his previous employment, Kiunjuri said,
“They didn’t tell me that the chemicals were harmful.”
I would have departed sooner if they had taken such action. Kiunjuri, who is now 75, knows that Syngenta’s paraquat packaging says it is one of the pesticides he was exposed to.
He doesn’t know the names of the other chemicals. Kiunjuri and other former farm workers, whose health has been hurt by handling paraquat and other HHPs, are suing many agrochemical companies, including Syngenta East Africa. They are suing on behalf of the African Center for Corrective and Preventive Action, a legal aid NGO, and Kenyan lawyer Kelvin Kubai. In the meanwhile, the Evitts lawsuit is only one of many being filed in the US by people claiming paraquat exposure caused them to have Parkinson’s disease. February is when the first US trial is supposed to start.
Exploring sustainable alternatives
Although pesticide manufacturers maintain that their chemicals are safe when used appropriately, farmers are rather vulnerable in the field. They frequently lack basic safety equipment like masks and gloves, are unlikely to have received the necessary training for handling chemicals, and the product labels are rarely written in a language that is widely spoken in the region. Kenya’s agrochemical industry is growing rapidly. People are trying to get rid of the most harmful pesticides on the market. These include those that are thought to cause cancer, birth defects, and problems with the brain and hormone systems.