President William Ruto on Tuesday directed Agriculture officials to hold consultative meetings and address concerns raised by Muguka farmers after 3 counties banned the transportation and sale of Muguka.
The Head of State held a meeting with leaders of Embu Counties including Governor Cecily Mbarire and lawmakers at State House on Monday evening.
After the meeting, Ruto confirmed that Muguka was a scheduled crop and noted that Ksh500 million had been allocated towards its farming in the 2024/2025 Financial Year.
"I have held a productive meeting with the leaders of Embu County on the recent ban on muguka. We have agreed that miraa/muguka being a scheduled crop, a meeting be convened to discuss the issue," Ruto stated.
"Consequently, I have directed the Ministry of Agriculture to convene a forum of all parties and stakeholders concerned."
The consultative meetings are expected to offer an agreement on the implementation of the Miraa/Mũguka Regulations 2023.
"The future of Miraa/Muguka 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 KSh500 million in the 2024/25 Financial Year for value addition of these scheduled crops."
Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi, during the meeting, had confirmed that Muguka was a scheduled crop whose regulations had been passed by the National Assembly and the Senate.
The meeting, therefore, concluded that any other laws, includig the ban, that contradicted national legislation was null and void.
On Monday, farmers in Embu, a Miraa-growing area, complained that the banning of Muguka in three counties including Mombasa was disadvantageous to their livelihoods.
They claimed that the crop was not a hard drug and that no consumers had been adversely affected compared to the use of marijuana or alcohol.
Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir first banned the entry, distribution, sale, and use of Muguka and its products within the county on Thursday last week.
He argued at the time the public had lamented that the youth were wasting away their lives. The ban was in consultation 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.
