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{
    "id": 439508,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/439508/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 327,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kangara",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12543,
        "legal_name": "Benson Mutura Kangara",
        "slug": "benson-mutura-kangara"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this Motion. First and foremost, I want to thank the Members who supported me when my name was floated, and it was unanimously agreed. First, I do not chew miraa and when I joined this Committee, I wanted to know what miraa is. I was very negative from the outset until we were indulged further and I learnt what was involved in miraa . The Committee made site visits to Meru and Embu. I wish to inform the Members of this House that some of the issues that we may take for granted, in some areas, they are matters of life and death. When we went to Meru, there was a big multitude of people and no political party has ever managed to get such huge numbers of people. When we interacted with them, most of them feared that miraa could be banned and yet, they have loans in banks. They wondered what would befall them. They also felt that they have been neglected because the Government has invested in a lot of research in other scheduled crops, but not in miraa . I wish to appeal to hon. Members to support miraa to be included in the scheduled crops, so that the Government may have the lee way of allocating research funds and also supporting farmers. We asked Ministries like Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Foreign Affairs, Commerce, Tourism and East African Region and Health to tell us what miraa is. The Chairperson was a bit diplomatic in her deliberations. But it is a pity that the reports that all those Ministries brought to the Committee were downloaded from the internet. So, basically, it means that we have no information regarding miraa in Kenya. It is really serious. This is part of the predicament why miraa was being banned. When we went to the Netherlands and we were discussing with officials from there, they said that even the Kenyan Government does not know what miraa is. They were very diplomatic and told us that when miraa was banned in the Netherlands, they had given the Kenyan Government some ultimatum, through the rules of engagement and diplomatic protocols, to give a proposal on what miraa is. They said that miraa is not chewed by their people, but they were a bit concerned. There was supposed to be a follow up on that report by the Ambassador, but she never bothered. Up to date, she has not even bothered. There was also a preliminary leeway and they are opening their doors in the next two years because they need to see the engagement of the Government to give them a proper write up indicating what miraa is. We engaged them and told them that miraa is a social crop here in Kenya. Communities, especially the Mbeere and the Merus, give"
}