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"content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, on the first sitting of the Committee, it prepared its terms of reference. There were ten terms of reference. If I may summarily indicate the terms of reference, the Committee agreed that it was supposed to comprehensively review the actions the Government was taking to ensure that khat is a suitable product for export. It was also to consider and view all the research findings that relate to khat and also make recommendations to the House on the necessary action to be taken by the Government towards the legitimizing of the usage of khat. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, it was also to look at the appropriate legislation to regulate the industry aimed at protecting miraa as a cash crop which is a major foreign exchange earner for this country. Among the other terms of references that the Committee thought through was to look at the possibility of proposing a developmental policy or a legal framework to address the challenges identified as facing miraa as a crop. It was also agreed that the Committee looks at the possibility of searching for other markets for that industry. Lastly, it was agreed that the Committee suggest alternative crops to miraa growing areas so as to help the community in those areas diversify their farming. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, during the sittings of the Committee, various stakeholders were consulted and we have set out the people who made submissions to the Committee and various institutions. Some of them were the farmers, consumers and traders of miraa . We also called upon the various governmental departments, ministries and semi-autonomous Government agencies. Those included the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, inter alia . Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we also thought it wise to get some input from various honourable Members of this Parliament. The support came from hon. Mohammed Abdullahi Diriye and hon. M’eruaki who came before this Committee and made their submissions as stakeholders in the industry. We also received various scientists and scholars. We got a lot of input from one Professor Isaac Kibwage who is a lecturer at the University of Nairobi (UoN) among other scholars and doctors. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Committee was also given an opportunity to travel to the United Kingdom (UK) and also to the Netherlands – countries that had issues with the growth and production of miraa. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, our Report talks about various issues that affect this market and in our summary of findings, some of the issues that we were able to come up with was the fact that in the miraa market or industry, it is a very unstructured business and from the way it is harvested, processed, marketed, consumed and exported, there is no structure that is able to guide its production or its harvesting or its market. We were also able to find out that there is no comprehensive or shared information across Government, Ministries or agencies that we would have relied on to help the Government and the people of Meru County, and among other areas that grow"
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