ALL RESTRICTIONS ON MIRAA/KHAT/CATHE ELULIS SHOULD BE REMOVED

We are a community based not for profit social marketing organisation
endeavoring to enable communities optimize the benefits realizable from
the resources at their disposal.

Our branch in Meru North District, Eastern Province Kenya acts as the
marketing agency for the Nyambene Miraa Trade Association (NYAMITA), the
legally recognized mouthpiece safeguarding and promoting the interests
of Miraa farmers, traders and transporters in Kenya.

We have seen the news item calling for comments on WHO's review of the
regulatory restrictions on miraa.

We humbly wish to state as follows:

Being the marketing agency for NYAMITA for over five years and working
among the main Miraa producers in the Nyambene areas of Igembe and
Ntonyiri (produce over 80% of the Miraa consumed in Kenya and over 95%
of the Miraa exported from Kenya), we have had experience with Miraa
farmers, transporters and traders and with the crop; Miraa itself. We
have also accumulated a large database on all that has been
reported/published on Miraa. We therefore speak authoritatively from a
position of knowledge.

The Meru's revere Miraa and most of their traditional ceremonies like
marriages and other engagements like intercommunity raids, going to
graze cattle, social gatherings, even minute things like asking for
audience from elders involve Miraa exchange. Meru's chew Miraa daily
from tender ages till they grow very old when they have to ponder it
with mortars and pedestals into paste, which aged people, can munch with
their gums. They also had elaborate Miraa-use rules enforced by the
Council of Elder; the "Njuri Ncheke" who were/are like the rulers of the
Meru tribe and custodians of Meru traditional and custom. Women and
children were never allowed to chew Miraa. Even young men only chewed
Miraa under the instructions of the Njuri to manage libidos when they
went raiding

Concoctions of Miraa were used to cure many ailments like erectile
dysfunction, malaria, influenza, vomiting, and headaches. It was also
used to overcome fatigue and hunger and enhance alertness.

Today however Miraa use and production have acquired a commercial angle
beyond the traditional controls.

This phenomenon has resulted into Miraa abuse leading to health, social
and economic problems.

The alleged health problems (which were/are non- existent with
traditional Miraa users) include decayed teeth, mydriasis, constipation,
appendicitis, dilated eyes, sleeplessness, hallucinations, etc and in
the long term, impotence and psychosis. Why Merus even today and with
their high Miraa intakes do not and have never been known to suffer from
any of these problems is a question that needs to be addressed. However,
it is thought that many of the Miraa using people experiencing health
problems, do so not from Miraa but mainly from the accompaniments that
they use while chewing the Miraa. Tooth decay, mouth ulcers sore
throats, stomach upsets and bad chests result from using raw sugar, over
sugared tea/coffee, sodas, sweets etc. Other Miraa users today are also
drug addicts and must therefore face the consequences of their bad
habits. Problems like appendicitis are caused by chewing Miraa on empty
bellies. Psychosis is a wayward allegation and has never been proven.
The only study that covered psychosis was by GTZ in Somali among the war
veterans but it failed to isolate the cause of very high incidence of
psychotic cases in Hergeisa as Miraa abuse or from war trauma. Impotence
is another far-fetched allegation, as no Meru is known to suffer
impotence from Miraa use. The reality is that most women complain that
their men spend a lot of their time chewing Miraa sparing little time
for them. This is thus construed to mean the mens libido has subsided.

The social/economic problems are real and actually result from war on
Miraa by the world, Miraa mismanagement and the exploitative nature of
the trade in Miraa. Kenya produces what is rated as the best quality
Miraa worldwide mainly from Nyambene region. She exports about 5 tons to
Amsterdam daily, 7 tons to London daily and 20 tons to Somali daily.
Still over 40 tons of Miraa are consumed locally and within the region.
All these are not recorded anywhere in the government's foreign exchange
earnings and the Miraa industry here is on free flow or survival for the
fittest basis as the government does not intervene in the industry at
all.

This is mainly because authorities like the UN and developed nations
whom she targets as her development partners have baselessly christened
Miraa as a hand drug and banned it from entry or use in their countries.
This scenario has left a regulatory vacuum where everyone struggles to
survive. Exporters having the advantage of knowing the markets operate a
cartel, which has imposed a strong buyers market. They offer whatever
prices they see fit to the farmers and have also imposed their own
trading practices where "order monies" are distributed at night in town
areas.

These two phenomena have made farmers so poor causing other ills like
high school dropping out rates, broken families as m en and youth go to
faraway towns in search of better prices, insecurity with the
infiltration of Somali refugees in the Meru area where they trade small
arms to raise monies to buy Miraa and worse still HIV/AIDS, as young
Meru men and youth go away for long leaving their poor wives and sisters
at the disposal of Somalis with lots of money. The men and youth
themselves come home after long periods, having been exposed to the
leisure life known around Miraa selling areas and not knowing their HIV
status to their wives. Others wait into the nights for "order money" in
towns where they indulge in alcohol and prostitution, wasting all that
they had earned.

A few farmers as well have taken advantage of the vacuum to apply
unproven pesticides on Miraa in a bid to make it sprout more and
quickly; for them to harvest more and more frequently. Since there is no
approved pesticide for Miraa and farmers are not educated on pesticide
management, consumers started getting affected.

The only bodies that have positively stood up for Miraa are the "Njuri
Ncheke" and NYAMITA. They have decreed the dreaded Meru curse (slitting
a sheep's throat while asking God to deal with any contravener) upon
anyone seen or unseen, who sprays Miraa with pesticides. Recently, they
oversaw the felling of over one hundred Miraa tress belonging to a
farmer who had been seen spraying his Miraa. They instead advocate the
use of traditional means of smoking the trees by burning a specified
plant in Miraa shambas until an applicable pesticide is authorized by
the government.

Of course, this desperation would not be there if the government was
contributing into research from farming to market access and not just
collecting revenue throw income tax and export levies.

To address these, numerous researches have been conducted; some
objective and most biased; intended to serve the whims of those who
commissioned the researchers.

However, the most authoritative among these are: -

1)  WHO- the first was in the 1950s and though not conclusive, many
    countries proceeded to ban Miraa not because of the recommendations
    of th4e findings but due to stereotypes and the domino effect
    whereby UK, etc must follow USA's foot steps and vice versa.

> WHO carried out another study in the 7os and this one succeeded to
> identify/confirm the active ingredients in Miraa as well as many other
> elements found in Miraa. Besides cathine and cathinone, Miraa has many
> other elements essential to the body, many in quantities, exceeding
> the daily required nutrients intake but for reasons best known to
> them, many countries focus on cathine and cathinone in Miraa only to
> demonize Miraa while it is known scientifically that the cathine and
> cathinone in Miraa is natural and in small quantities balanced by
> nature and the mode of ingesting Miraa precludes any intake of any
> reasonable quantities of cathine or cathinone.

2)  The second authoritative research on Miraa was by the National
    Council for Science and Technology, Government of Kenya in
    conjunction with the University of Nairobi. This included a thorough
    literature review, an analysis of their conclusions and
    recommendations and an overview of what needs to be done .It
    concludes that Miraa chewing must be separated from cathine and
    cathinone ingestion which substances can be made in laboratories.
    Further, it concluded that Miraa chewing has milder impact on the
    healthy, economic and social lives of users by far than alcohol and
    tobacco our renown and accepted social drugs.

> On the future of Miraa, the research states the need for objective and
> conclusive research into alleged effects of long term Miraa use,
> exploration, scientifically of what is known about Miraa traditionally
> especially medicine-wise and to tame some of the benefits like loss of
> appetite to treat obesity, hyperactivity and alertness for those
> needing endurance or working long hours.

Others who have substantially studied Miraa include:-

i)  Professor Maitai of the University of Nairobi for his PHD thesis.

ii) Professor A. N. Guantai of University of Nairobi, Faculty of
    Pharmacy, for her Masters thesis.

iii) Prof. Houghton of Kings College UK for his seminar which collated
     views from numerous expert researchers worldwide and equivocally
     advised in their conclusion that banning Miraa will be counter
     productive for any nation as long as there are populations of
     Eastern Africans, Yemenese, etc among their populace

iv) Prof. Fraser Lynn of Kings College brought to the fore the
    traditionally known and enjoyed Miraa values. In her study, she
    found that Miraa has ingredients that enhance male sperm virility.
    This is just one item among the myriad that were/are known and which
    can be re-established by research for the benefit of humans.

v)  The UN also had experts studying the relation between the flouting
    of the UN arms embargo in Somali and Miraa trade. They concluded
    that the millions earned by the warlords from Miraa trade was being
    used to fuel the war in Somali.

vi) The latest has been the UK survey of Somali Miraa users and
    non-users to establish the rates of Miraa use, the relationship
    between use and crime and drug abuse and attitudes towards Miraa
    use. 49% of the population wanted Miraa banned for they felt that
    they would be better of then.

On v) and vi) above, banning Miraa will not help. We have contended that
Miraa is a cultural tool for populations who do not enjoy alcohol or
other so-called leisure items like cigarettes. Even if it is made
illegal like it is in America and Canada, it will be smuggled there to
fetch higher prices than are available in the open markets today. Then
these billions will be not only available to fuel wars in the Somali and
its neighbourhood but to fund terrorist activities the world over. Most
Miraa chewers spend their leisure chewing Miraa as was found in vi)
above keeping away from crime and hard drug and from terrorist
recruiters like the AL-ITTIHAD AL ISLAM.

On the basis of the facts we have outlined above, we beg you to petition
WHO to be objective and rank Miraa correctly among other social
stimulants as it has been proven to be more mild to users in all aspects
and to have potentials unexplored than alcohol and tobacco which are
allowed by WHO under controls.

Compiled for **SAKIJO INTERNATIONAL** by

Kimathi J. S. Munjuri

Assistant Manager, Marketing & Strategic Planning

P.O. Box 58497-00200

Tel: 254-735-247300

Email: sakijo2001@yahoo.com