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{
    "id": 439500,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/439500/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 319,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Iringo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1574,
        "legal_name": "Cyprian Kubai Iringo",
        "slug": "cyprian-kubai-iringo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity to support this Motion on miraa . When I speak here, I do so with authority, having been brought up in a miraa growing zone. My constituency, Igembe Central, is one of the main producers of this product. We are debating issues affecting a crop which we strongly support. If anything is done that prevents the people of Nyambene or Meru from selling that crop, then we will be condemning the Amerus who have been living on it for centuries. The Meru community has known miraa for ages. Initially, it was used as a cultural crop. Even today, it is still used for engagements and it has now become an economic crop being sold across the world. If miraa is banned, the mainstay of our people will be affected. That is why I support this Report by the Committee to which I was a member. Miraa needs to be regulated like any other food that people consume when socializing, for example, beer. We have not had cases of miraa having adverse effects like those of alcoholic drinks. Therefore, I strongly believe and agree with our Report that, if miraa is regulated like beer and other stimulants which are consumed, the people of Meru will reap benefits from their crop. They will move in tandem with the current world. Therefore, I strongly support that miraa should be put in the Crops Act, so that the Government can support it. Lately, there has been a unilateral war by Members of Parliament. We have been fighting the war in the United Kingdom, which has gone ahead to ban the crop. We understand that by 24th June, 2014, we will not be talking any miraa there. This will affect the economic livelihood of our people. I do not know where we are going to take the youth who are selling miraa . We are going to condemn some of them to be idlers. Others will lose their jobs and there will be insecurity. We shall get thieves and others will even join the Al-Shabaab . The Government should wake up and help us in fighting for miraa . I do not want to go the distance that we have been told by the western world, when they said that choices have consequences. I am afraid they want to use miraa as one of the consequences. This is now condemning our country and we should rise up to the occasion. The Government should support us. The biggest challenge now is that if the UK bans miraa, it will also be banned in other places. The United Nations wants to put it The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}