A court has quashed the decision to transfer the Kenya Meat Commission from the Ministry of Agriculture to Defence.
This follows a petition by the Law Society of Kenya.
In the ruling delivered virtually by judge AC Mrima on Monday, the court said the move was a violation of Article 10 of the Constitution "for lack of public participation".
"The claim that the decision to reassign the ministerial responsibility from the Ministry of Agriculture to Defence is in violation of Article 10 of the Constitution for want of public participation succeeds. This court declares the said decision constitutionally infirm. The decision is hereby quashed."
The AG and Ministry of Agriculture have been given 90 days to "regularize the situation".
In September last year, LSK through Lawyer Manwa Hosea said he learned of an executive order dated on September 7 that purported to transfer the Commission from the Ministry of Agriculture to the Ministry of Defence.
He said the move was unlawful as the same had been done without any amendments to the KMC Act.
"The Ministry of Defence has no role or representation in the KMC as established under section 3 of its Act. The President ought to trigger relevant amendments to the Act before reorganizing the commission," he says.
Hosea sought to have court suspend directive transferring ministerial responsibility of the commission to the Ministry of Defence.
He said the directive was unlawful as the Executive arm of government cannot restructure or assign functions of the statutory body without such amendments of the statute.
"The directive purports to amend KMC Act by taking away its functions and transferring the same to the Defence Ministry, which has its own functions," read the court documents.