Justice Eric Ogola during a past court session. He recently ruled in favour of Phoenix Global Kenya in rice case where he ordered state agencies to release controversial rice from warehouses. [Photo: Courtesy]

The Judiciary has responded to rumours circulating on the interweb over the weekend claiming one of its judges “ordered poisoned rice to be sold in Kenya.”

A video circulating on social media based on a ruling by Justice Eric Ogola in a court in Mombasa on January 31, 2019, has caused panic among Kenyans. In his ruling, Justice Ogola ordered 10 million kilograms of rice earlier declared unfit by Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) into the market.

On Monday February 4, the Judiciary released a statement saying the claim was not factual. The Judiciary says the matter before the court was not about poisonous rice but about 20 per cent of a consignment of rice that should be reclassified and downgraded because it does not meet size standard.

“The Judiciary's attention has been drawn to reports in sections of the media that the Judiciary ordered release of poisonous rice into the market. This is malicious and false position aimed at tainting the image of the Judiciary,” read the statement that was signed by Catherine Wambui, Deputy Director of Communication and Public Affairs at the Judiciary.

The Judiciary says that the good rice was ordered for release into the market three months ago, only for the multi-agency to fail to open the go down after the importer. “… by the time of the judgement, all the stock was still intact. In the submissions, parties agreed that indeed even the rice which was alleged not to meet the size actually had minimal size variation,” reads the statement.

Additionally, by the time Justice Ogola delivered a ruling on January 31, 2019, all the rice bags were still in store.

The ruling

In the case, the petitioner, Phoenix Global Kenya (importer), sought to compel several government agencies - the Kenya Revenue Authority, KEBS, Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to open the warehouse and release the rice.

The rice worth Sh250 million had been held at a Mombasa warehouse after it was found unfit for human consumption.

Justice Ogola said in the ruling that the DCI may have not followed the required flawless sample testing criterion to prove that the rice was indeed unfit.

He notes in the ruling: " In my view, the integrity of the DCI’s sampling process and submission of samples for testing is questionable as not only do the reports fail to identify which Samples Collection Form the tests conducted relate to
but, also, the dates for submission of samples are inherently contradictory."

Phoenix Global Kenya swore an affidavit claiming that it had suffered damages amounting to  Shs.53,938,446.60. The company attributed the losses predominantly to costs incurred in storage, financial interests, wages, loss of businesses due to bad reputation and sampling and testing.

Its plea was headed as Justice Ogola ruled in its favour, ordering KEBS to additionally pay Phoenix Global Kenya Sh15 million as damages for illegal detention of 10,327 metric tonnes of rice.

KEBS were also asked to ascertain: Whether the white substance meets the requirement of any grade of rice, the percentage of moisture in the white substance, if the white substance has aflatoxin contamination, the arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead content in the white substance, whether the white substance is fit for human consumption.

Rice imports

In 2018, farmers from Mwea asked the Government to control imports to keep prices stable before they harvested.

Chairman of Irrigation Water Users Association Moris Mutugi said imports flooding the market will hurt earnings if not controlled. “We are expecting a bumper harvest and we foresee struggle to get market. If imports must come, then they should not be brought here to compete with ours,” he said.

Kenya imported 625,000 tonnes of rice last year compared to 507,999 in 2016.