Big Win for Farmers as Court Overturns Seeds Law

Lady Justice Rhoda Ruto delivered the landmark ruling in Machakos High Court. The ruling also lifted the reliance of farmers on commercial seed companies as the Seed and Plant Varieties (Amendment) Act,  2016 was cited as unconstitutional. 

15 stallholder farmers from the Seed Savers Network petitioned the court demanding legal recognition and protection of Farmer Managed Seed System, FMSS. They also wanted farmers' fundamental rights to be restored. 

The farmers argued that numerous amendments to the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants were both discriminatory to small holder farmers and sought to commercialise seed business at their expense. 

In their court papers,  farmers argued that between 2012 and 2016, some amendments were done to bring sweeping reinforcements to intellectual protection to new breeders while introducing punitive certification requirements for ordinary farmers. 

"The amendments have infringed several constitutional rights including the right to preservation of culture. Prohibiting the saving, exchange, or sale of unindexed varieties violates the fundamental rights of the Akamba community since it is part and parcel of their culture to do so, "lawyer Muhandick said in suit papers.

Lawyer Emily Muthama, representing Greenpeace Kenya, had submitted that the inclusion of indigenous seeds in the 2016 Act was grossly unconstitutional.  

She told the court that restricting unregistered seeds amounted to criminalising the exchange of seeds. This, said Lawyer Muthama, violates Article 11 of the Constitution.

Further,  she noted that there was no public participation prior to the introduction of the contested amendments. She noted that criminalising the failure to certify seeds was not only punitive but also eroded the petitioners' right to culture.

Advocate Peter Kuria represented the State.  He urged the court to throw out the petition on grounds that the cited international treaties can not be enforced until they were accommodated in local laws via legislation. 

While delivering her judgement,  Lady Justice Ruto noted that the provisions unfairly burdened small-scale farmers and gave disproportionate power to inspectors and commercial breeders.