A rice import battle has landed in court, with eight companies accusing the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) of unfairly declining to clear their consignments.
Damro Impex Limited, Royal Vale Traders Limited, Nitra Commodities Limited, New Line Trading Company Limited, Bn Commodities Limited, Meharvan Investment Limited, Ramadan Foodstuff Limited, Mjk General Trading Limited in their case claimed that KPA and KRA were illegally giving advantage to unknown individuals owing to alleged rice shortage in the country.
In this case, the eight companies, through their lawyers Sitonik Advocates, alleged that despite getting clearance from the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) and paying duties, their 7,835 consignment is still stuck at the Port of Mombasa.
“The respondents’ action beat the purpose for which the Court allowed importation of 250,000 metric tonnes of duty-free rice, which is food stuff for emergency relief due to the national rice shortage. The Respondents’ action not only threatened the Petitioners’ economic rights, but also the national food security,” court papers read in part.
Newline Trading’s director Abubakar Hussein in his supporting affidavit told the court that the Treasury Cabinet Secretary, upon recommendation by his Agriculture Minister counterpart, allowed importation of 500,000 metric tonnes of grade 1 milled rice duty-free.
However, Hussein said that the court reduced the amount to 250,000 metric tonnes but directed that AFA should not re-allocate the quotas that had already been issued.
“We did not contribute or take part in the decision of which entity between the Kenya National Trading Corporation and the Agriculture and Food Authority should implement the Gazette Notice of 28/7/2025, and we should not be subjected to economic sabotage on this account,” said Hussein.
According to him, AFA is he only entity that is mandated to allow importation of rice and food commodities. He said that failure to clear their rice was shrouded by mischief.
“We truly believe that the refusal by the respondents is informed by undue influence by earlier beneficiaries of the gazette notice to control the amount of rice in the market during this window to maximize their profits and it's not whatsoever informed by the ruling of this court dated September 23, 2025 which was specifically directed to the Agriculture and Food Authority and not the respondents herein,” he claimed.
Hussein alleged that their rice stands a risk of rotting. “ We will irreparably lose our hard-earned investment and their expected returns in violation of their economic rights,” argued Hussein, adding that if the same is not cleared by the end of the month, they will be forced to pay import duties.
