The Kenya Court of Appeal has put a hold on the trade and cultivation of genetically engineered (GE) products until an appeal filed by the Kenya Peasants League is given a full hearing, according to a report by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The appeal by the Kenya Peasants League and 18 other parties challenged the government’s removal of a long-standing ban on GE products in November 2022, which temporarily opened Kenya to global feed markets and agrotechnology, the 21 March report said.
In their petition, the claimants called for the reinstatement of a GE ban on constitutional, human health and environmental grounds.
Following the removal of the ban, feed and seed industry players had taken steps to import GE products, but the latest ruling on 7 March paused any movement until a subsequent hearing in late 2025, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) report said.
The injunction prohibits the import or commercialisation of GE crops, seeds or food in Kenya and also suspends any associated executive orders on GE products.
According to a press release issued on the day of the ruling by Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) – an alliance of organisations and movements across the continent advocating for agroecology and food sovereignty – the decision marks a significant step in protecting the rights of small-scale farmers and consumers while safeguarding Kenya’s biodiversity and ecological balance.
“We celebrate this ruling as a major victory for small-scale farmers across Kenya,” said David Otieno, a representative of the Kenya Peasants League, said.
“GMOs [genetically modified organisms] are not the solution to food insecurity in our country. Instead, they deepen dependency on multinational agribusinesses, threaten biodiversity and compromise farmers’ ability to control their food systems.”
In its ruling, the Court of Appeal said the public interest was best served by maintaining the ban while the legal and policy questions surrounding GMOs were fully addressed.
The case will proceed to a full hearing at the Court of Appeal between May-August 2025, the USDA report said.
