Bufumbira County East Member of Parliament Nsaba Buturo says a Bill prohibiting Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) will be discussed before the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party caucus before it is introduced in Parliament.

“The Bill is ready but the NRM which I belong to is saying that before you are allowed to introduce this Bill to Parliament, you first tell us what is going on before we promote this, Bill.

Once the caucus is briefed, I will inform the Speaker to give us leave to introduce the Bill to parliament and we start the journey of prohibiting GMOs in Uganda,” Buturo said.

According to Buturo, Uganda doesn't need GMOs.

"People don’t know about the GMOs and largely because there has been propaganda and money which is sunk into persuading us, that GMOs are the saviour that we need, but the truth is that is nonsense,” Buturo said during a media briefing at Parliament on Monday.

According to Buturo, the argument for GMOs has always been that they will do away with hunger, poverty and climate change.

“In coming years if we were to legalise these GMOs, then we would be in deep trouble,” the MP said.

GMOs, Buturo said, do not address issues of hunger, but instead plan to ridicule Africans and take away the little food Africans and Ugandans control.

“They hope to achieve this by asking traditional farmers to move away from traditional seeds and crops where you eat some, you sell some, they want to do away with that.

Food is where we as Africans still have some degree of sovereignty, but the moment they take that away, we are finished,” he added.

Buturo argues that GMOs will be a disaster for African farmers if legalized.

The MP for older persons, Joy Waako, said accepting GMOs is another way of being colonised.

“These GMOs are not sustainable with our traditional seeds because they spoil our soils, you have to use pesticides to give your farm some good yields,” she said.

According to Waako, indigenous seeds are more resistant to diseases compared to GMOs.

“In our days, a woman who would not keep seed would be termed as irresponsible. A woman had to keep some seeds for the next seasons, which is no longer the case now,” Waako said.

Laro-Pece division/Gulu East City MP Charles Onen revealed that African farmers will one day not have control over their own seeds.

“African farmers have no continuity of their seeds. GMOs show the highest level of dishonesty to fake reality, but they are hiding the truth. Africa managed to beat COVID because of the indigenous foods, the GMOs will never provide food security,” Onen said.