High Court has set aside orders blocking the government from importing duty-free cooking oil, ruling that the evidence that the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) filed was obtained illegally.
Judge John Chigiti ruled that two documents among the evidence filed in court were confidential documents and that LSK did not follow the right protocol to get them.
LSK produced a letter from the Treasury Principal Secretary approving the importation, and a departmental circular from the Commissioner for Customs and Birder Control to implement the oil clearance.
The ruling issued on September 1, now allows the government to import 125,000 metric tonnes of duty-free cooking oil.
"This court finds that it lacks jurisdiction to determine a suit on the basis of illegally acquired documents," the judge ruled.
According to the judge, LSK failed to explain how it got the documents before filing them in court.
"LSK did not demonstrate that it made a request to be formally furnished with the two documents or that the request was declined," the judge ruled.
The government announced the importation in November 2022 to help cushion Kenyans from high prices.
However, LSK challenged the move arguing that it would disadvantage local manufacturers and drive them out of business.
LSK added that there was enough cooking oil manufactured in the country and therefore saw no need for the government to import the product.
The society suggested that the government should lower the cost of production, especially electricity to reduce the cost of cooking oil produced locally.
“Given the reason behind the duty-free importation, the respondents (government) have also ignored the provisions of the Price Control (Essential Commodities) Act of 2011 which permits the government to control or otherwise stabilise or regulate the prices of essential commodities in order to secure their availability at reasonable prices,” LSK stated.
