By Benadeta Mwaura - Reporter
Kenya, 17 August 2026 - Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has ordered a fresh crackdown on the trade in counterfeit seeds, warning that fake agricultural inputs could worsen Kenya's food security challenges at a time when adverse weather is already threatening maize production.
Kagwe said farmers who buy counterfeit seeds can discover the problem only months after planting, when their crops fail and the money spent on seeds, land preparation, labour and other inputs has already been lost.
The CS issued the warning during an assessment tour of Eldoret, Nandi and Trans Nzoia, some of Kenya's important agricultural areas, where he directed security agencies to intensify efforts against people involved in the manufacture, distribution and sale of fake seeds.
Kagwe also urged Members of Parliament to support legislation that would classify the sale of counterfeit seeds as an economic crime, arguing that the consequences extend beyond individual farmers to the country's wider food production system.
The warning comes at a particularly difficult time for Kenya's food supply.
On August 11, the government announced plans to import one million 90-kilogramme bags of maize after adverse weather disrupted the 2026 harvest. Kagwe has warned that Kenya could face a shortfall of up to 5.4 million bags by the end of September.
The two developments point to a broader vulnerability in Kenya's food system: increasing production is not simply about putting more land under crops. Farmers must also have access to genuine planting material, reliable weather conditions, affordable inputs and functioning markets.
For a farmer, buying counterfeit seed is not simply a case of losing the price printed on a packet.
A failed crop can mean losing an entire season's investment.
Farmers spend money preparing land, hiring labour, buying fertiliser and pesticides and transporting inputs. If the seed fails to germinate or produces a crop significantly below expectations, those costs cannot easily be recovered.
The timing can make the problem even worse.
Kagwe said some farmers only discover that they have been sold fake seed five or six months after planting, when the crop fails. By then, the farmer has little opportunity to replant and may already be facing the next planting season.
Counterfeit seeds can therefore have consequences that extend from individual farms to household food supplies and, ultimately, national food security.
The Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS), which regulates seed quality in Kenya, says seed certification is designed to ensure that farmers receive seed that is true to variety, has adequate purity and germination capacity and is free from pests and diseases.
KEPHIS says certification involves several stages, including field inspection, seed processing, laboratory testing, packaging, labelling and sealing before certified seed reaches the market.
This means the fake-seed problem is also a threat to a regulatory system designed to give farmers confidence in what they are buying.
KEPHIS has previously advised farmers to purchase seed only from recognised dealers, agents and stockists.
Farmers should also avoid buying seed from opened packets or seed that has been weighed out from larger containers. Certified seed should retain the original company packaging, seal and label, while farmers should insist on receiving an official receipt and keep the empty packet and labels in case they need to make a complaint.
There is also a simple verification mechanism on certified seed.
KEPHIS says farmers can scratch the sticker label on a certified seed packet, reveal the concealed code and send it by SMS to 1393. The service is free and returns information confirming whether the packaged seed is genuine.
The agency has been conducting farmer-awareness campaigns on the issue, including sensitisation meetings in Makueni and Kajiado aimed at helping farmers identify and report fake seed.
While the government is stepping up enforcement against counterfeit inputs, Kenya's current food-security challenge has several other dimensions.
The 2026 maize crop was affected by unusual weather patterns, with rains arriving earlier than expected before a prolonged dry spell hit crops during critical stages of development. The resulting production concerns have pushed the government towards maize imports to replenish strategic reserves.
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This makes the quality of the seed available to farmers even more important.
When weather conditions are already unpredictable, farmers cannot afford another layer of uncertainty caused by planting material that does not perform as expected.
The government therefore faces the dual task of responding to the immediate food shortage while protecting the next planting season from further production losses.
Kenya Seed Company CEO Sammy Chepsiror has meanwhile assured farmers that the country has adequate seed stocks despite the prevailing drought. He also attributed improved access to seed to the government's subsidy programme.
The assurance comes against the backdrop of last year's commercial maize harvest, which reached nearly 70 million 90-kilogramme bags, according to the government.
That figure illustrates the scale of Kenya's dependence on maize, and why even relatively small disruptions in production can have significant consequences for food prices and household budgets.
Kenya already has a legal framework governing the production and sale of seed.
KEPHIS says the Seeds and Plant Varieties Act, Cap 326, regulates commercial seed production and sale and provides for punishment of people involved in illegal seed production and trade. Seed merchants and sellers are required to be registered, while uncertified seed sold commercially can attract a fine of up to KSh1 million and a jail term of up to two years.
The question, therefore, is not necessarily whether Kenya has rules governing the seed market.
It is whether those rules are being enforced effectively enough to prevent counterfeit seed from reaching farmers in the first place.
KEPHIS has previously acknowledged that counterfeit seed becomes particularly problematic during planting seasons, when demand rises and unscrupulous traders seek to exploit farmers looking for affordable inputs.
That creates another vulnerability for smallholder farmers.
A farmer trying to reduce production costs may be tempted by a cheaper packet of seed, only to lose considerably more when the crop fails.
The government will therefore need to ensure that enforcement does not stop at raiding individual traders. It must also identify where counterfeit seed is being produced, how it enters the distribution chain and who ultimately profits from the trade.
For farmers, Kagwe's warning is a reminder that the cheapest seed can become the most expensive input when an entire season's harvest is at stake.
For Kenya, the issue is even bigger.
The country is already preparing to import maize to address an expected shortfall. At the same time, farmers are preparing for future planting seasons under increasingly unpredictable weather conditions.
Protecting those farmers from counterfeit seed is consequently not just about protecting individual investments.
It is about protecting the country's ability to grow the food it needs.
Kagwe Warns Fake Seeds Could Deepen Kenya's Food Security Crisis
Farmers have been warned to avoid buying seed from opened packets or seed that has been weighed out from larger containers.