President Uhuru Kenyatta is set to open the refurbished Kenya Meat Commission on Monday, and officially hand it over to the Kenya Defence Forces.
This comes eight months after Uhuru transferred the commission to the Ministry of Defence through an Executive Order.
The President will make an extensive tour the KMC depot on Landhies road, before proceeding to the main factory in Athi River, Machakos county, to preside over the reopening of the meat processing facility.
KMC was transferred to KDF which was mandated with the task of restoring infrastructure and develop an ambitious business plan for the commission.
Following the transfer of KMC from the Ministry of Agriculture’s Livestock Department to the Defence Ministry, senators opposed the move saying that there was no public participation undertaken before the decision was arrived at.
The Senators asked Agriculture and Defence Cabinet Secretaries to appear before the House and explain what informed the transfer of the commission to KDF.
The Law Society of Kenya also moved to court challenging the restructuring of the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC).
The court had stopped the transfer.
In a ruling by Judge AC Mrima on February 2021, the court said the move was a violation of Article 10 of the Constitution.
“The claim that the decision to reassign the ministerial responsibility from the Ministry of Agriculture to Defence is in violation of Article 10 of the Constitution for want of public participation succeeds. This court declares the said decision constitutionally infirm. The decision is hereby quashed,” Mrima said.
LSK through lawyer, Manwa Hosea, said they had learnt of an Executive order dated on September 7 that purported to transfer the Commission from the Ministry of Agriculture to the Ministry of Defence, terming the move unlawful as it had been done without any amendments to the KMC Act.
“The Ministry of Defence has no role or representation in the KMC as established under section 3 of its Act. The President ought to trigger relevant amendments to the Act before reorganizing the commission,” Manwa said.
