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Catastrophic Duty-Free Rice Decision Sparks Dire Warning for Kenya's Food Future


Professor Fred Ogolla leader of TEAM EVOLVE.

NAIROBI, August 4, 2025.

Kenya’s agricultural backbone faces imminent collapse as the government’s decision to flood the market with 500,000 tonnes of duty-free rice triggers explosive warnings of economic sabotage and national food insecurity. The toxic Gazette Notice No. 10353, greenlighting Grade-1 rice imports without the mandatory 35% duty until year-end, has ignited fury from farmers and economists who condemn it as a death sentence for domestic production. Professor Fred Ogolla’s "TEAM EVOLVE" issued a blistering alert: this policy will annihilate livelihoods, enrich corrupt cartels, and chain Kenya to foreign food dependency.  

The crisis is immediate and brutal. Kenyan rice farmers, harvesting critical stocks through December in Mwea, Ahero, and Bura, now face deliberate undercutting by subsidized foreign imports. "This isn’t incompetence, it’s targeted sabotage of our food sovereignty," Ogolla declared, slamming Kenya’s failure to leverage its 1.5 million-tonne potential while producing a paltry 300,000 tonnes annually. Neighbouring Tanzania’s 2.4-million-tonne surplus, achieved by banning imports, exposes Kenya’s surrender to foreign interests as a catastrophic policy failure. 

 The government stands accused of rigging the system: crushing local farmers with taxes while gifting import cartels a 35% profit advantage. "This notice is a criminal haven for cronies," TEAM EVOLVE charged, revealing how a 2024 duty-free quota failed to lower consumer prices (per USDA data) but funneled profits to elites. Revenue losses will hemorrhage Kenya’s coffers as import taxes vanish amid spiraling debt. Worse, hundreds of thousands of jobs across milling, transport, and retail face extinction, threatening rural economies nationwide.  

TEAM EVOLVE issued five non-negotiable demands for survival:
1. Immediate shredding of Gazette Notice 10353;  
2. Restoration of the 35% duty to protect Kenyan producers;  
3. Emergency investment** in irrigation, mills, and cooperatives, not foreign rice;  
4. Expulsion of foreign monopolies, notably Japan, for Kenyan-led sector investment;  
5. A war-time strategy for rice self-sufficiency by 2030, enforced with military precision.  

The final warning echoes with existential urgency. "Death isn’t just by bullets," Ogolla’s statement thundered. "Starving millions through policy is genocide by spreadsheet." TEAM EVOLVE’s ultimatum leaves no ambiguity.  Kenya must ditch its suicidal import addiction and ignite domestic production NOW, not in 2027. "Park this economy on imports while gutting local farms, then dream of free healthcare? A strong shilling? Jobs? That’s not economics, it’s national suicide."  

With the December 31st deadline looming like a guillotine blade, stakeholders, faith leaders, and citizens are summoned to flood the streets in protest. The survival of Kenya’s food sovereignty and its people, hangs on tearing up this treasonous policy TODAY.

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