• Kenya moves to overturn a court order freezing its E.U. trade agreement.
• An NGO says the pact violates East African Community market rules.
• The deal, in force since 2024, underpins billions in trade with Europe.

Kenya will challenge a decision by the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) that suspended the implementation of its Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union, Trade, Investment and Industry Minister Lee Kinyanjui said on November 26.

The minister said the trade ministry has initiated a legal appeal to set aside the court's injunction. “The Kenya-EU EPA is the lifeline of our booming exports and a source of livelihood to a large majority of Kenyans,” he said.

“"Kenya will continue to trade with the EU and steps are being taken to ensure continuity, predictability and protection of our existing commercial arrangements,” he added.

A regional judicial body of the East African Community, the EACJ issued the suspension order on November 24, pending the outcome of a petition filed by an NGO challenging the agreement. The deal grants Kenyan products duty-free access to the European market and provides for a gradual opening of the East African country to a wider range of European goods.

Alleged Violations

According to the petition published on the court’s website, the Centre for Law Economics and Policy on East African Integration (CLEP East Africa) brought the case against Kenya on the grounds that the country’s trade pact with the E.U. “violated certain provisions of the treaty establishing the East African Community common market,” of which Kenya is a member.

The Kenya–E.U. EPA, intended to liberalize trade and increase investment flows between the two sides, entered into force in July 2024. Its commitments include binding provisions on labor issues, gender equality, the environment and climate action.

Kenya’s exports to the E.U. reached $1.56 billion in 2024, while its imports from the bloc totaled $2.09 billion, according to figures from the Kenyan Ministry of Trade.

As Western countries seek to counter China’s position as Africa’s largest trading partner, Brussels hopes to make its EPA with Kenya the new foundation of its relations with East African countries. In 2014, the E.U. concluded a broader Economic Partnership Agreement with the East African Community. That deal, which offered immediate access to European markets for regional products in exchange for the gradual opening of East African markets to European goods, was never implemented. Of the five EAC members at the time—Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda—only Kenya ratified it. In 2021, the other EAC members allowed Nairobi to pursue a renegotiation of the agreement without them.

Walid Kéfi