KERUGOYA, Kenya – The High Court has ruled that a constitutional petition challenging the government’s duty-free rice import programme cannot be withdrawn, saying the case raises weighty public interest issues affecting farmers, consumers and national economic policy.
In a ruling delivered in Kerugoya, the court allowed Kirinyaga Senator Kamau Murango and Baragwi Ward Representative David Mathenge to take over the petition after the Farmers Party, which initially filed the case, sought to discontinue it.
The judge held that constitutional litigation touching on public participation, consumer protection and economic rights cannot be abandoned at will once it is before the court.
“The constitutional character of the petition, as pleaded, clearly raises constitutional issues of public participation, consumer rights and violations of rights to property and life, among others,” the court observed.
The petition challenges a Gazette Notice issued on July 28, 2025, authorising the duty-free importation of up to 500,000 tonnes of grade-one rice.
The Farmers Party filed the case in August 2025, accusing the National Treasury and the Ministry of Agriculture of bypassing public participation, violating farmers’ property rights and acting beyond powers granted under the East African Community Customs Management Act.
In December, the party sought to withdraw the petition in its entirety, with no orders as to costs.
However, Senator Murango and Mathenge opposed the move and applied to be substituted as petitioners.
They argued that terminating the case would automatically lift interim court orders that capped duty-free imports at 250,000 tonnes.
The two leaders warned that uncontrolled imports would expose thousands of local rice farmers—particularly in the Mwea irrigation scheme—to losses as cheaper imported rice floods the market.
Justice Edward Muriithi rejected objections from several government agencies, including the Kenya National Trading Corporation and the Agriculture and Food Authority, which argued that the lawmakers lacked legal standing and that similar cases pending elsewhere made the petition unnecessary.
Government lawyers told the court that Kenya remains heavily dependent on rice imports and that duty-free shipments are critical to stabilising prices and preventing shortages.
They said retail rice prices had declined since imports began and warned that suspending imports could trigger hoarding and sharp price increases.
The petitioners, however, countered that the government opened the import window without first exhausting locally produced rice stocks, undermining domestic farmers while benefiting importers.
The case will now proceed to a full hearing, keeping alive a legal battle that could shape the future of rice import policy and farmer protection in Kenya.
