Dear friends and supporters. We would like to share this important fundraiser organised by Afri’s friend, Irish Author and Seedkeeper, Claire O’Grady Walshe. Please read Claire’s appeal below.
Dear friends. Clare here wishing you all well and wanted to share news of an inspiring community response to the critical challenge facing Kenyan farmers.
- An unjust seed law which criminalised smallholder farmers in Kenya is to be appealed in February 2025.
- Now 15 brave smallholder farmers and seed producers from 7 counties of Kenya, supported by our wonderful colleagues at Seed Savers Network Kenya, alongside other groups are appealing this unjust law and they have asked that we help shine a light on their case, which has implications far beyond themselves.
- I was delighted and humbled to learn recently that they are using findings from my PhD research and book in the forthcoming High Court case, which could save their right to save, use and share their seeds and protect their rich diverse agrarian systems of millennia.
- I am raising money to make a trailer/short film in order to get wider institutional funding for a full length film documentary about this historic and globally important seed case in partnership with Kenyan colleagues and with brilliant Irish and Kenyan film makers.
I recently learned from Kenyan friends that some of my research findings from my PhD and book, will be used in February in a landmark appeal of the seed law of 2012 which criminalised them for saving, sharing and selling their own seeds.
My research had outlined how this law came into being, excluding farmers and civil society and in contradiction of the solemn promise of The Constitution of Kenya 2010.
The Law Society of Kenya have recently joined the case in support of the farmers and underlining the constitutional commitments, which is a great boost.
Working in partnership with Seedsavers Network of Kenya and other colleagues there, we are endeavouring to make a film/documentary about this globally important case to protect seed practices of millennia.
We in Ireland know how the loss of control of robust, diverse seed systems and reliance solely on monoculture crops for commercial markets can lead to horrific consequences, as it did in Ireland in the 1840s. One million of our people starved, and a million emigrated. This loss remains etched in our DNA and cultural memory and informs much of our values since.
The Kenyan farmers know that this case is not only about them. It is about everywhere, where age-old agrarian ecosystems are undermined and corporate colonisation down to the smallest seed now poses a major threat to food security, as it did for Ireland in past times. The Irish starvation is cited across the literature as a salutary warning precisely for this reason.
Working with great Irish filmmakers Jerry O’ Callaghan and Dónal Ó Céilleachair here and wonderful Kenyan documentary maker James Gitonga in Kenya. We will be going to Kenya in the next few weeks and working with the people there to document and tell the story of their work. This is all our shared work and hope for the future.
Your support is hugely appreciated.
Thank you and best wishes.
Clare
You can support the campaign by donating through the GoFundMe page here
Clare O’ Grady Walshe is an Irish author and Seedkeeper. She received her doctorate in politics and international relations in 2018 specialising in Seed Sovereignty and Globalisation.
Clare’s book was nominated by Palgrave for the 2021 Agarwal
Book Prize from the International Association for Feminist Economics
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030128692
Clare’s field research in East Africa (Ethiopia and Kenya), including a detailed study of the seed law in Kenya, is being used as evidence in the forthcoming case. She has lectured extensively on Climate, Biodiversity and
Food Politics at Trinity College Dublin, is an elected Member of the Company of Irish Seed Savers Association. She has served as CEO Greenpeace Ireland, Trustee of Greenpeace International, development education coordinator for Afri, Board member of Children in Crossfire, Irish Aid Advisory Committee member and as a member of the Irish Government High Level Task Force on Green Enterprise.
