Nnadozie, Kent --- "Old Wine in New Skin: Traditional Knowledge and Customary Law Under the Evolving Normative Environment in Kenya" [2012] ELECD 331; in Bubela, Tania; Gold, Richard E. (eds), "Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge

Editor(s): Bubela, Tania; Gold, Richard E.

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848442238

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: Old Wine in New Skin: Traditional Knowledge and Customary Law Under the Evolving Normative Environment in Kenya

Author(s): Nnadozie, Kent

Number of pages: 22

Extract:

6. Old wine in new skin: Traditional
knowledge and customary law under
the evolving normative environment in
Kenya
Kent Nnadozie

INTRODUCTION

Traditional knowledge (TK) and issues related to it now feature in virtually all
international forums and negotiations on human rights, health, energy, trade,
agriculture, and, most importantly, the environment. There is also extensive
debate and a considerable number of initiatives related to TK at the national
and sub-national levels. This is, perhaps, an indication of the fluid and perva-
sive nature of TK both in conceptual terms, its practical application, and the
wide range of sectors in which it is apparent. Although cross- and multi-secto-
rial, as we have seen in the above discussion on Brazil, it is in the context of
biological diversity or biodiversity that some of the thorniest issues in the
discourse on TK have arisen ­ its nature, scope, application or use, ownership
or control. The issues become even more fraught at the intersection of biodi-
versity with trade, modern science and technology, contemporary legal rules
and concepts, as well as its interface with modern knowledge systems gener-
ally. It has thus attracted a large coterie of scholastic research and spawned an
enormous amount of literature. This chapter focuses on the issue of TK in
Kenya, specifically on the Turkana ethnic group.
Kenya was the location of some of the earliest human settlements. Sites
such as Koobi Fora, near Lake Turkana, have evidence of hominid habitation
dating back 2.5 million years.1 However, ...