Bees bar: Why Kenyans must be vigilant

When the Kenyan Parliament published the Livestock Bill 2021 on May 13, it caught everyone off-guard.

One of the issues the Bill sought to address was the commercial exploitation of bees in the country. What is interesting is that the Bill did not explain what prompted a regulatory intervention in bee-keeping.

Luckily enough, the proposed law caught the attention of the media, which raised the alarm. The public outcry that followed forced the Leader of the Majority in Parliament to withdraw the Bill.

The question the public keeps asking is: why would the government impose fines on small-scale bee-keepers?

In a country where 70 percent of food production is by small-scale farmers, the last thing the government should do is burden bee-keepers with unnecessary regulation.

In other countries across Africa, bee-keeping by small-scale farmers is being seen as key to economic empowerment and food security.

But in Kenya, instead of coming up with policies and laws to enhance bee-keeping and scale up the use of modern technologies such as the simple environment-friendly hives developed by Kenya-Top-Bar Hives, we are looking into ways of putting barriers for the sector to grow.

The fact that many small-scale bee-keepers are emerging in the various counties and we can buy honey that is produced locally is a clear indication that apiculture can play a key role in job creation for MSMEs.

The youth are also taking interest in bee keeping at a time when technology is playing a major role in the sector.

Section 98 of the recalled Bill states “that no one should own or possess bees or bee-keeping equipment for commercial purposes unless the person is registered under the Act or allow bees to be kept on land owned or occupied by the person unless the land is registered under the act as the location of an apiary”.

This is a mockery of the laws of nature.

Bees play an important role in our environment and the enhancement of the biodiversity. As pollinators, they support the growth of trees, flowers, and other plants, which serve as food and shelter for all creatures.

They also support our agricultural productivity to ensure food security. Without bees, several other species will not co-exist. We can say that, bees are part of our livelihood. And when we begin to regulate their natural movements we are undermining our own existence.

The Bill clearly was self-serving. Perhaps an investor in the sector wanted to get rid of small producers who may not have the required land size to commercially exploit bee-keeping. And this came at a time Kenya is exploring how small-scale bee-keepers can scale up productivity and secure the global market.

The Livestock Bill, 2021 is a clear indication that there are many of such pieces of legislation that have gone through Parliament without the scrutiny of the public. And in the end they become detrimental to the public.

Under normal conditions, a government can only introduce such a Bill to reduce market inequities through taxation, regulation or subsidies. The government can also intervene in markets to promote fair competition in an economy. Protection of consumers is also one of the common and best understood reasons for government interventions. But none of these reasons pushed our Parliament to contemplate regulating the bee-keeping industry.

Nonetheless, the 2010 Constitution has provisions on public participation in matters touching on public interest. In my view, the Ministry of Agriculture owes the public an explanation as to how the Bill got to Parliament before subjecting it to meaningful public participation.

Members of Parliament especially in an election year are vulnerable to cartels seeking to legislate unfair competition. The public must be vigilant between now and the election time next year. In the meantime, there is need to have punitive laws against direct lobbying that seeks to undermine the legally mandated policy process.