Somalia's khat ban leaves Kenyan farmers in despair

By Andrew Wasike

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) - Kenyan workers involved in supplying khat were left wondering if their livelihood would ever return Thursday following Somalia’s sudden and unexplained ban on the mildly narcotic plant.

The farmers, packers, transporters and wholesalers of khat, known as miraa in Kenya, were shocked Monday when Somalia -- the largest market for the drug -- imposed a ban without explanation. There has still been no word for the government in Mogadishu about how long the ban may last.

“Our farmers are losing so much with this ban,” Dave Muthuri, chairman of the Kenya Miraa Farmers and Traders Association told Anadolu Agency. “We are not clear as to the terms of the ban and why it was imposed. Farmers have lost millions as they are our main market.”

According to Muthuri, khat with an estimated value of 60 million Kenya shillings ($592,000) was lost on the first day of the ban. The plant must be delivered to customers fresh, before its green leaves wilt.

Khat, which produces a mild amphetamine-like effect when chewed, has long-established social and cultural uses among Somali men and is widely consumed in the afternoon, much as tea of coffee is drunk in other parts of the world. However, overuse of the drug can lead to mental health problems.

The plant is mostly grown in Kenya and Ethiopia and exported to Somalia. In the exporting countries it has become a valuable cash crop for farmers.

The ban announced by Aviation Minister Ali Ahmed Jangeli has not been explained -- leaving those who make a living from the crop wondering when it might be lifted.

In Meru county, central Kenya, the 1.4 million population largely depends on the khat crop. Once a month, farmers harvest trees that are often more than 60 years old before the stems are packed into small bundles for export.

Farmers have been hit hard before -- in 2014 when the U.K., then one of the world’s largest importers due to its Somali diaspora, banned the plant.

However, they were saved as an increasingly prosperous Somali market bloomed.

Timothy Kiunjuri, a khat farmer, said the U.K. ban -- the drug is also banned in other parts of Europe with large Somali communities, as well as the U.S. and Canada -- meant his children were unable to attend school for a time but the increased demand from Somalia seemed to be a promising light at the end of the tunnel.

“This is when I realized that even the light at the end of the tunnel that most of us had seen might be the headlights of an oncoming train,” he said. “They have finished us. Some of us, unlike me who has a farm, have been asked not to report to work.”

He added: “People are out of jobs, thousands. This does not affect the farmers alone. The packers too are out because there is no miraa to pack, the drivers of the miraa vehicles have nothing to transport. Where we buy fuel, we won’t be doing that. The mechanics who repair the vehicles are out of job.

“In Somalia it’s the same thing. This is just like the ripple effect.”

The ban has led to calls for the Kenyan government to protect those affected.

“All efforts to eliminate miraa from the world economy and thus condemn a sizeable populace of us to poverty will and must fail,” the Nyambene Miraa Trade Association said in a statement.

The main hope for those involved in the industry is that the ban has only been imposed for the duration of a regional summit in Mogadishu and that it will be removed once the heads of government leave Somalia.