Legislators tell off colleague in miraa debate

A section of Meru Legislators have told off Balambala MP Abdikadir Aden who has accused the Jubilee government of condoning bad policies.

Mr Aden’s statement came after President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law a Bill to classify Miraa as cash crop and announced the allocation of Sh1 billion for Miraa farming through the ministry of Agriculture.

“Miraa is the number one drug that is devastating the lives of many youths in the two regions (North Eastern and Coast) and it is insensitive of the Jubilee Government to continue supporting the growing and trade in this drug while the rest of the world has classified it as a dangerous drug with many of them including the UK banning it all together,” he said.  

But  Meru Woman representative Florence Kajuju said that the MP was only seeking public attention as he should have raised his objections in Parliament.

PART OF PROCESS

“Mr Aden should understand that Miraa is a cash crop according to the amendment done by the House in which he was sitting. He ought to have known that he was part and parcel of the process,” Ms Kajuju said, adding that no youth has been affected by chewing miraa as the MP had claimed.

She added that there will be a system to look into the production, marketing, distribution and consumption of Miraa that will cater for both the farmers, traders and users.

Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi said MPs opposed to the signing of the Bill had slept on their job during the legislative process.

Igembe North MP Joseph M’Eruaki said that the government has now recognised miraa farmers who have been marginalised from the agriculture sector for long.

 “It is a new dawn now that the government has decided to assist Miraa farmers who have been marginalised. The setting aside of Sh1 billion to cushion the farmers is an indication that we have been treated equally with farmers in tea, coffee and sugarcane growing areas,” he said.

Meanwhile, a plan to lobby the British government to reverse a ban on the importation of miraa spearheaded by the government has come back to haunt senior politicians from Meru with some farmers questioning the whereabouts of the money raised towards the cause.

A case filed at a court in London in 2013 to challenge the ban was lost as the British government in 2014 refused to declassify miraa as a Category C drug shuttering the fate of thousands of farmers from Meru who depend on the crop for a livelihood.

MONEY RAISED

The Nyambene Miraa Traders Association has threatened to go to court seeking to compel the legislators to explain how Sh40 million allegedly raised towards the purpose was used.

“These omissions have caused great loss to the farmers as khat has no market currently and the level of poverty is on the increase in the county where farmers are dependent on the crop… You are further required to provide an update of the position of the case in London and forward to us statements of all the monies received and expenses incurred to date,” they say in a demand letter sent to through their lawyers Moseti and Company Advocates.

But the Meru County Women’s Representative denied claims that MPs misused funds meant for the case, saying they did not use a cent of it as the collection was used to pay lawyers.

The trip to London, she says, was sponsored by the National Assembly as it was part of their parliamentary duty.

“We went there as a special parliamentary committee and all that we spent there was given to the committee by Parliament as it does to other committees,” said Ms Kajuju.