Firm seeks court’s help in row with Kenya’s pest control board

NAIROBI: An agrochemical company has moved to court over the alleged failure of the Pest Control and Products Board to renew its trade licence.

Farmchem Ltd, in a case filed before the High Court registry, said it has been seeking to renew its licence to sell pest control chemicals since last year with no luck.

The board, the firm claimed, has also transferred Farmchem’s distribution rights to another company, which has seen it lose more than Sh175 million.

“The petitioner (Farmchem) has lost $1,750,904 since the transfer,” the company said in papers filed by its lawyer, Charles Dulo. It added that the board has been frustrating its efforts to end the stalemate.

CONTROLLED POISONS

Farmchem stated that the move to have third parties distribute the controlled poisons it used to sell could be dangerous, as no one would bear the burden if anything went wrong.

“The irregular transfer to their parties had obliterated the lines of liability for the products to any party. This leaves farmers and consumers and the entire public at large exposed to a myriad of health problems and environmental hazards of which no accountability falls,” the court papers read.

“The respondent (board) continues to facilitate unlawful and illegal trade of the petitioner company’s products by third parties against the very rules that govern them.”

Farmchem added that it has been involved in farm chemical trade for more than four decades, and the decision made by the board was frustrating it from reaping the fruits of its research, time and the resources used in registering its products in Kenya.

The company now wants the court to force the board to renew its licence, stating that it had followed all the right procedures to get its products registered and distributed in the Kenyan market.

“The wanton discriminative and capricious behaviour of the regulator will lead the entire industry (into) anarchy (and a) breakdown in the rule of law with dire consequences to the industry, environment and the general public,” the papers read.