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{
    "id": 439556,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/439556/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 375,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Prof.) Nyikal",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 434,
        "legal_name": "James Nyikal",
        "slug": "james-nyikal"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, so, if you notice, a lot of information about miraa has not been confirmed. There seems to be doubts, both locally and internationally, that the work that has been done is not conclusive, and you can see that in the Report. If you look at the summary of findings, you find that in Summary No.2, there has not been scientific proof that khat/miraa is a drug. If you again look at Summary No.8, it says that khat has medicinal value. In scientific terms, that cannot be so. Once something has a scientific value, then in a way it is a drug. So, again, that just indicates that the work that is available is really not conclusive and, therefore, people are making decisions both here and internationally without adequate information. Further on, hon. Members will appreciate that all the recommendations are extremely good, and will be useful for stakeholders in the miraa sector. This is because anything that has medicinal value must have side effects. It is, therefore, a drug. Therefore, it is not that you cannot use it but there must be ways in which you can use it. Therefore, the recommendations take care of that aspect. I can tell this House that if you take enough water, you can actually have water intoxication and die. Therefore, once we know that it has some medicinal value, we have to go on those scientific bases. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I support the Report because the recommendations contained therein are good. The eighth recommendation – which has been amended – should be the basis for all other recommendations. The Government should actually put more money in the research on miraa . If we do not do that, some people will do so and discover some very important components and start selling them back to us, just like it happened to our pyrethrum, when they discovered pyrethrin. Pyrethrum just lost its market because they discovered an active ingredient and came up with synthetic pyrethrin. They can do the same and find the active ingredients in miraa and just start marketing it. Nobody will ever buy miraa again. We could have done this earlier, gotten the synthetic material, owned it and have rights on it. With those remarks, I beg to support."
}