CORD leader Raila Odinga has called off his three-day visit to Meru where he was expected to address issues facing miraa farmers.
Raila was to begin his tour today in Tigania and Igembe before heading to neighbouring Tharaka Nithi County on Monday. The visit had provoked excitement and consternation in equal measure, with local leaders allied to the ruling Jubilee coalition terming it “opportunistic.”
Yesterday, Raila met Meru leaders in Nairobi’s Orange House and welcomed them to ODM. He said he held a “very fruitful meeting” and they discussed strategies to take ODM in the vote-rich region, where Jubilee coalition has huge support.
“These delegates from Meru comprise church leaders, elders from the Njuri Ncheke, teachers, youths, farmers, miraa traders and businessmen. They have come to talk about Meru. We have spoken about a lot of things, and many progressive ideas about our country and Meru,” said Raila.
He said it was “belittling” for the Jubilee administration to tell Meru farmers to plant other crops and abandon miraa, instead of finding market for them.
Mike Makarena, a miraa sector activist who organised the Meru leg of the tour, also confirmed its postponement. He said the postponement would enable the former PM meet miraa farmers and leaders to agree on a few issues.
The postponement, he said, would also allow them issue the Opposition leader with an official invitation. “He will elaborate his and the opposition’s efforts to look for markets for miraa. He will also remind the region to never forget that the European countries only banned miraa after President Uhuru Kenyatta consented to a government agency’s classification of the stimulant as a drug,” said Makerena.
The activist said Raila wants the region to know they are being hurt by deliberate actions of the President they overwhelmingly voted for in the last elections.
Makarena said a task force appointed by the President two years ago was yet to start its work even though it had been handed Sh600 million. The CORD leader was to reveal details of his alleged engagement with British authorities, including Prime Minister David Cameroon, in a bid to unlock the impasse created by the ban of exports to the UK.
ODM’s two MPs in Meru -- Igembe Central’s Kubai Kiringo and Tigania East’s Mpuru Aburi -- are both allied to the ruling coalition.
Aburi said although the former PM had not invited him to join him in the visit, he had no issue with anyone offering assistance to miraa farmers as he also has seven acres under the crop.
But Kiringo has been accused by local Jubilee leaders of organising the visit. URP Meru chairman James Mithika, who has expressed interest in Kiringo’s seat, claimed logistics were being organised by the MP’s former chief campaigner and a close relative.
“We challenge Raila to have the stimulant’s ban lifted in Tanzania, where he claims he has very good friends in high places,” he said.
