Court suspends govt move to lift ban on export of raw macadamia nuts
A trader sells macadamia nuts in Nyeri town in this past photo.
The High Court has suspended the government’s move to lift the ban on export of raw macadamia and the decision to grant exclusive exportation rights to nine processors and dealers.
Justice John Chigiti suspended the decision by Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi after a farmer complained that by granting nine processors and dealers the exclusive rights to export raw macadamia and leaving other players’ in the industry amounts to discrimination.
The judge certified the case by Joseph Ndungu as urgent and directed him to serve the court documents upon the CS, Attorney General Justin Muturi and nine nut processing companies.
“Leave is granted in terms of prayer 2(a) of the chamber summons. Leave shall operate as stay in terms of prayer 3,” the judge said.
Mr Ndung’u said the CS in a letter on July 7, 2023, lifted the ban on exportation of in-shell macadamia nuts to address prices crisis.
However, the letter allowed nine companies- Fair Nut Company Ltd, Nicemart Traders & General Suppliers and Exotic EPZ, the exclusive rights to export the nuts for a period of 90 days from July 17 to October 16.
Others granted the exportation rights are Nutri Nuts and Fruits, Edenswin Traders Ltd, OCM Consulting Ltd, Lenana Processors Company Ltd and Kamil Packers Ltd.
The farmer says the failure to include over 41 industry dealers, processors, farmers and macadamia sector stakeholders, in the decision offends the principles of public participation.
He added that the move is contrary to section 40 of the Agriculture & Food Authority Act, which emphasizes on participation of farmers in the governance of agricultural sector in development of policies, regulations and major decisions that affect the sector.
“That as a result of the foregoing skewed decision, all legitimate and duly licensed dealers and processors of in-shell macadamia have been deliberately sidelined by the skewed decision of the 1st Respondent (CS Agriculture),” he said.
The judge directed the mater to be mentioned on October 17 for parties to be given a judgment date.
Mr Ndung’u said the decision of conferring exclusive exportation rights without any justifiable competitive selection criteria encourages discriminative practices which ultimately discriminate against other legitimate macadamia dealers and processors.
“It is therefore disturbing that the 1st Respondent would violate the same law he is seeking to enforce by granting exclusive license to unlicensed entities to export in-shell macadamia nuts within the period of the lifting of the ban as stipulated in the said notice while excluding duly licensed processors and exporters of macadamia,” he said.
