House committees to meet British MPs on miraa ban today

Monday, November 25, 2013

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The National Assembly Committee on Miraa is expected to have a session with British MPs in London today when it meets the committee on Delegated Legislation in a bid to overturn a UK government ban on the commodity.

The committee recently held talks with Home Affairs committee chairman Keith Vaz and his Foreign Affairs counterpart Richard Haway to seek the support of the British Parliament against classification of miraa as a drug.

Meru county women's representative Florence Kajuju is leading the Kenyan delegation to save the multibillion industry after Home Affairs Secretary Theresa May banned the sale of miraa in the country in July. Kajuju seeks to convince the British MPs that the herb is not a drug according to her own technical committee’s report.

The Netherlands banned miraa imports in January on environmental grounds. Another delegation that travelled to Netherlands said that they had put up a very good case, ironing out environmental issues.

Regardless of the ban, over six tones of Miraa continue to access the British market every week accounting to over Sh4 billion a year.

However, Somalia remains Kenya’s biggest miraa market in the world worth tens of billions in trade volumes annually followed by Netherlands.

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