Relief for farmers and traders as court temporarily halts duty-free rice import

By Benson Ltamely

Rice farmers and traders can breathe a sigh of relief after the High Court in Kerugoya granted stay orders to temporarily stop the import of 500,000 metric tonnes (MT) of Grade 1 milled white rice into the country.

This comes after Farmers Party through its Secretary General, Simon Kamangu, sued the Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Mutahi Kagwe, and the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) for their decision to import the duty-free rice to the disadvantage of local rice farmers.

In its petition to the court, the party argued that the decision to import duty-free rice was unreasonable, irrational, illegal and a gross violation of the Constitution of Kenya-2010. It further argued that the same will prejudice the farmers’ interests and the economy as farmers have enough rice stock to supply the market.

“It is illogical for the government to import duty-free rice in lieu of supporting local rice farmers to produce qualitatively and quantitatively as agriculture is the backbone of our country’s economy,” Farmers Party said in the petition.

High Court Judge, Justice Edward Muriithi, certifying the matter as urgent, agreed with the petitioner and granted stay orders to temporarily stop the importation of 500,000 MT of Grade 1 milled white rice pending the hearing and direction of the matter on Thursday, August 14, 2025.

“It is hereby ordered that the application for conservatory order to stay the implementation of the Cabinet Secretary’s decision published in Gazette Notice No. 10353 of 28/7/2025 approving the implementation of importation of 500,000 MT of rice duty free is certified urgent in view of the relief sought,” Justice Edward Muriithi ordered.

National Treasury and Economic Planning CS, John Mbadi, on recommendation of the CS for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Mutahi Kagwe, on July 28, 2025 gazetted the importation of 500,000 MT of Grade 1 milled white rice duty-free into the country until December 31, 2025.

This created anxiety among rice farmers and traders who feared that the duty-free rice will flood the market and lower the prices thus leading them to incur losses. Many also questioned the government’s rush to import duty-free rice while farmers have rice stocks yet to be bought by the government.

According to AFA, Kenya consumes an estimated 1.3 million MT of rice annually yet local production accounts for only 264,000 MT, barely 20% of the national demand. It further warned that failure to import rice under the current shortfall would either lead to acute food scarcity or a spike in food prices.

AFA further noted that for the last three years: 2022, 2023 and 2024, Kenya has only produced 15%, 14% and 20.47% of its rice consumption with the deficit filled by imports.