Court suspends Munya order disbanding Strategic Food Reserve

The High Court Tuesday suspended a notice by Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya published in April disbanding the Strategic Food Reserve Fund.

Justice Weldon Korir issued the temporary order following an application by Okiya Omtatah, who has argued that the legal notice was arbitrary because there was no public participation.

Mr Omtatah said there is absolutely no public interest to be served by abolishing the fund, which he said is well managed and was executing its mandate perfectly, including resisting the importation and dumping of cheap maize that would hurt local farmers.

“Similarly, the Strategic Food Reserve Trust Fund and its operations to fulfill its objects and purpose, acts as a lifeline for the society’s most vulnerable, including the poor, marginalised and minority groups, the young, the elderly, those with disabilities and others who may be similarly disadvantaged,” he said.

It was, therefore, wrong for the CS to wind up the fund without the approval of the National Assembly and against recommendations of Cabinet on restructuring both the Fund and the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB), he said.

The activist said the establishment and maintenance of the Fund was part of the government’s constitutional duty to cushion Kenyans from food insecurity.

He said a Cabinet Memorandum dated November 20, 2019, which highlighted the successes of the fund and the failures of the NCPB, recommended the restructuring of both the Fund and the NCPB, including making the Fund a body corporate and vest the administration in a CEO.

The move was meant to cure conflict of functions where the PS is both the administrator of the Fund and a member of its oversight Board. The Cabinet also asked the CS to repeal outdated clauses in the NCPB Act to align it with the Warehousing Receipting System (WRS) Act 2019.

The new Fund would then implement the WRS Act 2019 by June 2020. The case will be heard on July 1.