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As the tussle for votes ahead of next year’s elections hots up, two leading political coalitions have found a new battle ground — the vote-rich miraa growing Nyambene region.
Jubilee’s Uhuru Kenyatta and CORD’s Raila Odinga are leaving nothing to chance as they seek to lay claim to being the ‘saviour’ of the miraa sub-sector, which was hit hard by the ban of exports to Europe two years ago.
Just two weeks ago, President Kenyatta signed the amended Crops Act to officially classify miraa as a cash crop. A week later, Raila announced to the region that he had initiated diplomatic negotiations with Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli to have a decade-old ban of export to the East African state lifted.
Raila also announced that he was spearheading further diplomatic reproaches with Britain and the Netherlands to lift a devastating ban that cut off exports to the mainly Somali immigrant communities living in these two countries.
As 2017 approaches, each side of the political divide is thinly disguising their key objective in their charm offensive. At stake is about 239,374 votes, as per the 2013 statistics.
Lucrative markets
The Nyambene region of Meru County comprises three constituencies in Igembe (South, Central and North) and two in Tigania (East and West).
In the last elections, Raila’s ODM won two parliamentary seats in Nyambene, a region that has had a liberal voting pattern since the first multiparty elections in 1992.
The timing of the signing of the amended Crops Act was itself surprising, coming only a week before Raila’s visit to Meru and on the last day of the third Annual Devolution Conference hosted by Meru.
This week, the Meru Parliamentary Group was on Tuesday holed up in a meeting with Agriculture CS Willy Bett to discuss the Sh1 billion budgetary allocation to the sector announced by the President after he signed the Act.
The PG concluded that a task force to be appointed by the President be tasked to recommend the type of structures the sub-sector should adopt after adequate public consultations.
But during the Meru visit, Raila laughed off the President’s announcement of the budgetary allocation to the sector, terming it inadequate.
The Opposition said restoration of the lost lucrative European markets was a matter of utmost urgency.
“What we are asking from the government is its intervention to ensure that our foreign markets are restored. We do not need any funds to produce miraa since we have always raised what is needed,” said ODM Meru County pointman Mike Mutembei.
To achieve this, Raila and his entourage called for stiffer conditions before the military training agreement between Kenya and Britain is renewed.
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However, Mutembei was adamant that the miraa issue should be delinked from such politics.
“If we drag the (military) agreement into the miraa issue, we will antagonise more than 20,000 families whose members are employed by British Army Training Units in Kenya (Batuk),” said Mutembei.
Noting that international trading is coordinated by the national government, the CORD leaders claimed there are worrying signs that the Somali market could soon be lost too.
“We are calling on the President and his government to engage the foreign governments directly instead of setting aside funds that only amount to Sh2,000 if divided equally to all farmers,” the former PM said.
Mutembei termed the allocation grossly inadequate, saying miraa farmers can pump Sh2 billion into the economy.
The opposition insisted that the Jubilee administration had failed to deliver its election promises to the people of Meru, despite the area having overwhelmingly supported the ruling coalition in 2013.
Hunting ground
That CORD considers Nyambene region a potential hunting ground was apparent after more than 30 candidates intending to vie for seats on ODM tickets competed for a chance to address the crowd.
But even as Jubilee and CORD jostle for the vote rich region, Kubai Iringo (Igembe Central) and Mpuri Aburi (Tigania East), the two ODM MPs in the region have since allied themselves with Jubilee whose ticket they hope to secure for re-election.
Aburi said the miraa growing population would welcome any assistance to help the sector and was grateful to Raila.
“As a matter of fact, we really have no war with anybody. We believe the government is doing well enough to retain its support base. It has a foolproof plan that has no risk of being eroded by any political propaganda,” he said.
But South Imenti’s Kathuri Murungi termed Raila’s visit a disappointment. “Unlike Jubilee that has offered substance by amending the Crops Act and allocating the Sh1 billion, the CORD leader just gave a promise premised on his personal friendship with the Tanzanian president,” said Murungi.
According to the MP, lobbying the Tanzanian parliament to lift the ban might not be easy as CORD thinks.
“Legislation takes months to be completed and there is the little matter of the anti-Kenyan stance adopted by our East African brothers,” said Murungi.
Tigania West MP David Kareithi said CORD’s wooing of Nyambene region threatened to significantly erode Jubilee’s crucial stronghold if not dealt with appropriately.
“I would personally urge the President to intervene and end the infighting between political camps allied to Senator Kiraitu Murungi and Governor Peter Munya because they always plunge any government project initiated in the area into ignominy,” said Kareithi.
The MP, who is allied to the governor, said the Sh1 billion allocation was at risk of being soiled by local political infighting.
He warned that Raila appears to have sensed a vacuum and opportunistically moved in to stake his claim.
But URP Meru chairman James Mithika said the CORD would have been celebrated had he announced that he had convinced his Tanzanian friend to use his wide executive powers to reopen miraa exports.