Kenya’s High Court on Thursday struck down parts of a decade-old seed law, clearing the way for small-scale farmers to save and share local seed varieties without fear of prosecution — a decision celebrated as a major victory for “food sovereignty” advocates and rural communities.
In a ruling delivered in Machakos, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) southeast of Nairobi, the court found provisions of the 2012 Seed and Plant Varieties Act unconstitutional. Those provisions had criminalized saving uncertified seeds and then sharing or selling them, exposing farmers to fines or jail terms.
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“It will be a relief for us farmers because we will be planting seeds that are familiar to us. We know where they come from, they are drought resistant and they have been in our lineage all along for many years,” said farmer Samuel Kioko, who watched the verdict online in Nairobi. He called the ruling a “great victory.”
The decision caps a two-year constitutional petition filed in 2022 by smallholder farmers from across Kenya. They argued that the law’s penalty clauses chilled a tradition central to Kenya’s food systems — farmer-to-farmer exchange of indigenous and locally adapted seeds — and skewed the market in favor of large breeders and commercial seed companies.
Lawyer Wambugu Wanjohi of the Law Society of Kenya, who represented the petitioners, said the court found the statute failed to treat farmers and commercial producers equally. “Parts of the law granted extensive proprietary rights to plant breeders and there was no corresponding right that was given to the farmers. So, it favored big commercial and corporate interests over the rights of farmers,” Wanjohi said.
The state-run Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS), which oversees seed certification, has argued the 2012 legislation was designed to guarantee quality and maximize yields, contending that certified seed helps protect farmers from counterfeit or substandard varieties. But critics said the threat of criminal penalties for sharing uncertified seed penalized long-standing community practices and stifled agricultural diversity.
Environmental campaigners welcomed the judgment. Greenpeace described the ruling as a milestone for food sovereignty, saying it affirmed that “the ancient right of farmers to save and share seeds supersedes commercial interests,” and could reshape the balance of power between communities and agribusiness.
Seed sharing is a deeply rooted practice among Kenya’s smallholders, who make up the backbone of domestic food production and often rely on hardy, locally adapted varieties to manage erratic rainfall and recurrent drought. Farmers like Kioko say those seeds are more predictable in their fields and have been tested over generations.
The court did not reject seed regulation outright. Rather, it targeted provisions that imposed blanket criminal penalties on farmers who circulated uncertified seed — a narrow but significant change that leaves room for a system balancing quality assurance with traditional exchange. The full text of the ruling was not immediately available.
The case spotlighted a broader policy tension across Africa: governments seeking to professionalize seed systems to boost yields and ensure quality, while rural communities defend informal seed networks that maintain crop diversity and resilience. Thursday’s decision adds judicial weight to arguments that farmer rights must be recognized alongside breeders’ intellectual property claims.
It was not immediately clear what changes lawmakers or regulators would pursue following the verdict, or how quickly the decision would be implemented. For now, farmers who relied on community seed systems say they feel vindicated — and freer to plant what works in their own soils.
“We know these seeds,” Kioko said. “They have carried us through difficult seasons.”
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
