CS Peter Munya pledges to restore banned Somali Miraa market

 

Miraa farmers. FILE

 

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya now wants to calm miraa farmers as they regroup for a mass protests to censure the Jubilee administration over a trade deadlock with Somalia, the largest miraa market.


Over the weekend, Mr Munya crisscrossed the miraa growing zones reassuring traders and farmers that President Uhuru Kenyatta means well for the crop notwithstanding the continuing ban of the herb in Somalia.


Dejected farmers and traders, who say more than Sh2.5 billion has been lost in the last five months, have been warming up for demonstrations to demand the resolution of the impasse with Somalia.


Addressing farmers in Athiru Gaiti, Kanuni, Muringene, Kiengu and Miciimikuru over the weekend, Mr Munya urged the affected farmers to have a little more faith that President Kenyatta will unfasten the obstacle.


At the same time, Mr Munya told Deputy President William Ruto to keep off miraa issues, arguing that the President is on top of things.


The move cames after the DP William Ruto urged miraa farmers to broaden into other crops even as the government tries to resolve the deadlock.


“President Uhuru Kenyatta is the first head of State to make miraa a cash crop and the first to introduce miraa in his official speech. When some counties started banning miraa, it was the President who ordered them to stop and allow free movement. He is the only one capable of addressing the current problem,” Mr Munya said.


In Kanuni in Igembe South, the Cabinet secretary approached a chaotic meeting as locals kept yelling seeking pledge that the Somalia market would be reopened.


“We do not want Tangatanga politics in the miraa issue. Whoever is telling us to look for an alternative crop should know that miraa is the mainstay of this economy,” Mr Munya said.