By Kepher Otieno - Reporter
Kenya, 11 January 2026 - Scientists at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) are fighting what they reportedly describe as a creeping institutional capture that threatens to turn one of Kenya’s most strategic agricultural research hubs into a commercial real estate and agribusiness enclave.
At the heart of the storm is Muguga, a vast tract of prime land that for decades has served as a national laboratory for crop science, seed development and farmer demonstration trials.
What was once a sanctuary for innovation is now at risk of being repurposed into an “Agri-City,” a move researchers say fundamentally violates the spirit, purpose and legal basis under which the land was originally acquired and protected.
For KALRO scientists, many of them PhD holders with decades of published research, the dispute is not about rejecting agribusiness or commercialisation.
It is about preserving the integrity of a national research institution whose core mandate is to generate technologies that raise yields, fight climate stress, control pests and improve food security.
They argue that Muguga is not idle land waiting for development, but a living research ecosystem where soils, micro-climates and controlled plots are used to test new crop varieties, fertilisers and farming systems before they reach farmers.
Turning it into sunflower fields and an urban-style agri-estate, they warn, would wipe out years of scientific investment.
“What is being proposed is not development, it is displacement of science,” one senior researcher told colleagues in internal discussions.
“You cannot run long-term crop trials next to commercial real estate and expect credible data. This is a research station, not a shopping mall.”
Scientists say the controversy reportedly erupted when KALRO management quietly began pushing a revision of land use without meaningful public participation or stakeholder engagement.
They insist that the Muguga land was gazetted and financed for research and technology generation, not for commercial property development.
Any fundamental change, they argue, requires transparent consultations with scientists, farmers, universities, development partners and the public.
That has not happened.
The backlash has since widened beyond the laboratories and into the farming community itself.
Farmer leaders James Kamau, Virginia Waweru, Victor Songhor, Caleb Koskei and Winnie Mutai have now taken up the fight, warning that what is happening at KALRO is a national risk to food security.
“This is not about exploiting legal loopholes to grab land,” Kamau said.
“This is about protecting public science. KALRO belongs to farmers, not to private interests.”
The farmers argue that Muguga and other KALRO centres are part of Kenya’s strategic food infrastructure, just like dams or seed banks.
They fear that once research land is commercialised, it is lost forever. You cannot reclaim experimental plots once buildings and agribusiness estates move in.
What makes the Muguga row even more explosive is that it has collided with a simmering succession and governance crisis inside KALRO.
Sources within the institution say morale among scientists is at its lowest point in years. Many feel sidelined, ignored and increasingly marginalised in an organisation that was built on scientific excellence.
At the centre of their anger are allegations that KALRO’s leadership and board are preparing to steer the institution through a leadership transition that prioritises political loyalty over professional competence.
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Researchers claim that highly qualified PhD scientists with strong publication records and proven research leadership are being bypassed in favour of individuals seen as politically correct, well-connected or ethnically aligned with power.
“This is not just a land issue,” one scientist said.
“It is about who controls KALRO and for what purpose. Are we a research institution or a political project?”
There are also claims, quietly but persistently whispered at headquarters, that the board and top management are dominated by a narrow ethnic and political bloc that enjoys proximity to power, while others are locked out of decision-making regardless of merit. The result, scientists say, is a culture where serious research is undervalued, and institutional direction is increasingly shaped by non-scientific interests.
The Muguga land proposal, in that context, is seen not as an isolated development idea but as part of a broader shift away from KALRO’s founding purpose.
Scientists fear the organisation is being transformed from a public research body into a quasi-commercial entity driven by land, leases and agribusiness deals rather than laboratories and field trials.
Yet even among critics of the Agri-City, there is recognition that agribusiness, innovation hubs and value-addition centres have a role to play in modern agriculture.
What they reject is the zero-sum approach that sacrifices research for commercial returns.
“The idea of an Agri-City is not bad in itself,” said one senior scientist.
“But it cannot come at the expense of the very science that feeds it. You need a balance. You cannot kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.”
That call for balance is now echoed by farmers. Waweru said Muguga should be managed in a way that allows limited agribusiness use while preserving its core function as a research and demonstration centre.
“You do not throw away public research land just because someone has a shiny development proposal,” she said.
The farmers have now formally asked Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe and KALRO board chair Dr S. Thuo to intervene.
They want an urgent investigation into the land-use change, the governance of KALRO and the succession process for the Director-General.
They also want the top job re-advertised and an independent professional human-resource firm brought in to manage recruitment on the basis of merit, not political convenience.
Their concern is that if the leadership question is mishandled, the Muguga land issue will only be the first of many compromises.
“Once you politicise leadership, everything else becomes negotiable,” Songhor warned.
At stake is more than one parcel of land. KALRO sits at the centre of Kenya’s agricultural ecosystem. It develops seed varieties, pest-control methods, climate-smart farming systems and livestock technologies that millions of farmers depend on. Its mandate is to develop, test and disseminate innovations that raise productivity, build resilience and improve incomes.
If KALRO loses its scientific independence, Kenya risks undermining its own food security at a time when climate change, rising input costs and global instability are already squeezing farmers.
Muguga is not just a field; it is part of the country’s research memory and future.
That is why the fight over its fate has become so intense.
To scientists and farmers alike, this is a line in the soil. If it is crossed, they fear, Kenya’s premier agricultural research body may never be the same again.
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