Commenting on the government’s newly devised resolution to capture DNA for new national IDs or replacements, RX Radio presenter James Onen thought that the development would rather be applied to paternity tests.
“Now that we are on the subject of DNA, why not use that technology to deal with the more crucial matter of paternity fraud? You'd rather have a DNA test on all children that are born to reduce incidences of paternity fraud. Do you know that doubts about paternity are responsible for a lot of conflicts within families?” He asked Olive Najjuma, the co-host of the Show.
She conceded to the argument saying that men should have the right to leave the hospital fully knowing that the children are theirs and this will drastically reduce the number of single mothers.
Although Fatboy acknowledged the technology as one that will generate full proof information, he thought that it could easily be abused by those bestowed with power for their interests including framing their enemies.
“With your genetic information, who knows if some nefarious actors within the security state decide to incriminate you or plant evidence at a crime scene? He can just concort a sample that has your DNA signature and before you know it you're being produced in court as a suspect with DNA as supportive evidence?” he wondered.
On the other hand, Olive wondered if the government had the resources to obtain the technology and whether it was needed. She referred to the East African passports that were supposed to contain a chip bearing the same information as that printed on the passport’s data page which has never come to reality.
“So here we go, we've run out of passport booklets and now we want to start harvesting DNA. Is it necessary, isn't it invasive?
According to the State Minister for Internal Affairs, the genetic information will be picked together with the fingerprints and eye details to quicken the process of providing the information when it is required.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive and Sarah every weekday from 6am to 10am on RX Radio.