President William Ruto on Tuesday instructed Agriculture officials to organize meetings to discuss and resolve issues raised by Muguka farmers.
President Ruto gave a directive to Agriculture officials to tackle the grievances brought up by Muguka farmers following the ban on Muguka transportation and sales in three counties.
On Monday evening, the Head of State met with Embu county officials at State House.The meeting included Governor Cecile Mbarire and other local lawmakers.
After the meeting, President William Ruto verified that Muguka was a slated crop. Furthermore, 500 million shillings had been allocated towards its farming in the 2024/ 2025 financial year.
“The future of Muguka/Miraa is in scaling up farming, aggregation, grading, pricing, packaging and value addition of the crop,” read a statement from State House.
“For this reason , the government has committed 500 million shillings in the 2024/25 financial year for value addition of these scheduled crops.”
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The consultative meetings are expected to offer an agreement on how to put the Muguka/ Miraa Regulations 2023 into action.
During the meeting, Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi confirmed that Muguka is a planned crop with regulations approved by both the National Assembly and the Senate.
The meeting concluded that any other laws, including the ban, that contradicted national legislation was invalid and ineffective.
On Monday, farmers in Embu, an area where Muguka/ Miraa is grown, expressed their dissatisfaction with the prohibition of Muguka in three counties, including Mombasa.
They expressed that this action was harmful as it was their way of life. Furthermore, they claimed that the crop was not a heavy substance and that no consumers had been heavily affected as compared to the use of marijuana or alcohol.
Last week Thursday, Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir issued a directive prohibiting the importation, distribution, sale and consumption of Muguka and its derivatives in the county.
Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir elaborated further that people were complaining that the youth were misusing their leisure time.
The decision to ban Muguka was made after discussing with the National Authority for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse ( NACADA). Following his suit, Kilifi and Taita Taveta counties followed suit issuing bans on the Muguka.
