KENYA REPLY ON SHARING OF GENETIC RESOURCES

UNCLAS NAIROBI 001174 SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/E, AF/EPS, AND OES/ETC E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV ETRD TBIO KE SUBJECT: KENYA REPLY ON SHARING OF GENETIC RESOURCES ¶1. Econoff delivered reftel points on March 9 to Elijah Manyara, Director, Department of External Trade, Ministry of Trade and Industry. Manyara noted that the trade in genetic resources is an important issue for Kenya, which feels that its biological diversity has been exploited by "foreign entities" without approval or compensation. He promised to raise our points with Kenya's interagency committee dealing with the Convention on Biological Diversity, chaired by the Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI). The response from the committee will be forwarded to OES/ETC when it is received. ¶2. Background: As noted by Mr. Manyara, the issue of exploiting natural resources, including locally-sourced genetic material is very topical in Kenya. There has been significant press coverage of the "Genencor" case, in which individuals from the University of Leicester on a research grant in 1992 collected samples of "extramophiles" from Kenya's volcanic lakes. The researchers subsequently sold the samples to a private company, Genencor International, which cloned these into enzymes via genetic manipulation, and later sold the technology to Proctor and Gamble. P&G in turn reproduced billions of the 'mophiles' and used them as an essential cleansing ingredient in the company's popular Tide detergent. Kenya claims that the commercialization of enzymes based on material from Kenya was illegal. The Kenya Wildlife Service (which has regulatory authority over virtually all of Kenya's naturally-occurring flora and fauna) is pursuing compensation from Genencor. ¶3. There have been a number of other reported cases of flora and fauna being "illegally" exported out of Kenya for the commercial development of pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. The magazine insert of the widely-read February 27-March 5 EastAfrican newspaper had a number of special features under the heading, "Assault of the Biopirates." The articles gave prominent mention of a report "Out of Africa: Mysteries of Access and Benefit Sharing" produced by The Edmonds Institute (Edmonds, Washington) and the African Centre for Biosafety. (See: http://www.edmonds- institute.org/.) ROWE