Work of the Task Force for the Development of the Miraa Industry

In the Gazette Notice No. 4420, President Kenyatta appointed an eleven member task force to spearhead a road map for the Miraa industry in Kenya to recover lost Miraa markets and get new ones among other initiatives to grow the industry and ensure that the streak of losses being suffered by farmers end. It is now two months since and merely a month to the expiration of its term, yet there has not been any communication from the Chairpersons or Joint Secretaries or the Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture about what the Task Force has been doing. No activity has been noted on the ground either leaving most of the stakeholders who had very high hopes, given the President's good will to turn the fortunes of the stakeholders, with bile in their mouths.

There have been rumors that the Task Force was held in some high end hotel in Naivasha brainstorming about how to go about their mission. This alone has caused a lot of jittery in the industry with pundits seeing no sense at all why they should sit elsewhere when there are good enough hotels in Meru County that can use the extra income. Nothing about this has been verified.

Another rumor is that the members each received a sum of Kes300, 000. It is not clear but lifestyles of a number of the forcers have all over sudden changed, according to those close to them. A few do not even answer calls from their mates any more.

Another lot alleges that the Force has been denied funding. This also has not been verified.

The Nyambene Miraa Trade Association (NYAMITA) has already written to the Cabinet Secretary of Agriculture bringing the concerns of lack of clarity of action to the fore and requesting for information on what is going on but no reply has been received yet. They plan to hold a press conference in the course of next week to ask the Cabinet Secretary to come out openly about the work of this Task force.

Also raising eyebrows is the Kes1Billion kitty that the Miraa farmers were given by President Uhuru to cushion themselves against the debilitating effects of the Miraa bans in Europe. It was certified that this fund was factored in the Budget and subsequently released to the Ministry of Agriculture but since then. Nothing has been heard about it especially about the interventions the Ministry intended to put the money into and the criteria of selecting the beneficiaries given that the Muguka traders and farmers and Somali Miraa consumers had also started to lobby to be included as beneficiaries. Some politicians including the Meru County Women Representative, Hon Kajuju quoted in the media supporting their inclusion but the Miraa farmers fought back that Miraa and Muguka were two different products, that at the time the award was being done, it was Meru MCAs and MPs only at State House and that the President was very categorical that the money was to help Miraa farmers against the negative impact of Miraa bans. No Muguka was going to Europe from Kenya leading the Miraa industry stakeholders to read mischief in this push and sympathy by their own leaders.

Further fears are fueled by the fact that the Force is a who is who to what politician from the County and this being a campaign period, our politicians being known not to care about diverting public monies for their good, it is not lost to anyone what the possibilities here can be.

Also of concern is the direction a cause filed in court against the Task Force will take. The Petitioners allege double interests by some of the forcers, integrity issues, complete lack of background knowledge of the industry, education background issues given the nature of the mandate of the force which may entail engaging international community yet some of the members have minimal education. Failures in previous appointments and community initiatives especially the push to stall or stop the ban of Miraa in Europe where farmers are said to have lost over Kes40million in a very unclear effort fronted by the politicians and some Miraa association they had crafted and poor representation of the actual Miraa growing area badly hit by the bans.

All this is in the backdrop of the Ministry blatantly refusing to fund a previous Task Force appointed last year instead hiding under a fictitious court order which had been clarified by its own Lawyer as non-existent until the term of the Force lapsed in May this year.