By: Friday Bulletin
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s latest move to allocate one billion shillings to miraa (khat) farmers has angered leaders of North Eastern and coastal region. The allocation by the head of state is meant to revive the sector that has been hard after the importation of miraa was banned by many European nations in 2014.
The President made the pronouncement on Friday when he hosted Meru leaders at State House Nairobi where in an unprecedented step; he also signed into law a Bill that categorizes miraa as a cash crop. The amended Crops Act now requires the national government to promote, produce, distribute and market miraa as a cash crop. North Eastern leaders led by Mandera Senator Billow Kerrow, lashed at the president saying the effects of miraa on their youth is similar to that of illicit brew on the youth in Central Kenya.
Kerrow said the President’s decision was misguided as he chose to ignore the wellbeing of hundreds of youth in North Eastern and Coast whose lives have been decimated as a result of the narcotic plant. “The lives of thousands of our people have been destroyed by miraa, youth have failed to go to school because of miraa. Families and health of individuals have been destroyed yet the government has ignored all that,” he said at the graduation ceremony of RAF University on Saturday.
The senator noted that the two regions have borne the greatest brunt of the leafy twig and the 1 billion shilling should have instead been used to set up rehabilitation centres for affected youth who are better deserving of the funds. “If there are people who need to be given money, it is the people of coast and North Eastern. These people need billions of shillings to rehabilitate the lives of many people destroyed by that drug,” he said.
Kerrow accused the national government of frustrating the efforts by National Authority for Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) to classify the stimulant as a drug and regulate its consumption locally. He urged fellow leaders to safeguard and secure the lives of youth in the region from the harmful effects of miraa by coming up with legislative measures that will hinder its trade and consumption.
Former deputy speaker of the National Assembly Farah Maalim while echoing similar sentiments said the lives and livelihoods of many Somalis and Muslims have been ruined by the stimulant and likened the harmful effects of miraa to that of illicit brew.
“Miraa is the kumikumi or illicit brew of Somalis worldwide. It’s a drug in the same class with weed. It must be banned globally and regionally” he said. While calling for its total ban, Farah pointed out that the ban by European nations on the stimulant was informed by extensive scientific research which revealed the substance as highly addictive.
Mbalambala MP Abdikadir Aden said by supporting miraa farming, the jubilee government has ignored the wellbeing of its citizen bearing in mind the health implications miraa has on the people of coast and Northern Kenya.
Coastal parliamentarians were also not left behind in criticizing the president for declaring miraa as a cash in order to win the political support of miraa growing region.
The leaders who included Changamwe MP Omar Mwinyi, Ganze MP Peter Shehe, nominated senator Emma Mbura said the money should have been instead used to revive collapsed cashewnuts and sugar factories in the region.
