Maina Waruru
Saturday, March 17, 2007
For this area is Kenya’s main region for the production of khat, the narcotic leaf that until late last year was shipped by the ton into Somalia.
The leaves and tender shoots of the tree shrub catha edulis produce a feeling of mild euphoria when chewed and tend to alleviate hunger and fatigue. Grown best at higher altitudes, the leaves are chewed on a daily basis, mainly by men in Somalia and throughout much of the Middle East.
Traditionally, Kenya has been the major supplier of khat to Somalia, while highlands farmers in Ethiopia have dominated the Middle East market. It is an extremely lucrative trade and has for decades sustained comfortable lifestyles for the farmers and businesses in the Naymbene hills.
Even after the Union of Islamic Courts took charge of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and banned the use of khat, the trade continued to flourish. Light aircraft, loaded with leaves and shoots, usually picked by children who are able to scramble up the slender branches to the top of the shrubs, flew daily from Nairobi’s Wilson airport to various towns in war-torn Somalia.
“The ban didn’t stop the khat from getting into Mogadishu, and everywhere else in Somalia it was still legal to chew the leaves,” says exporter Abdulkadir Ali.
He claims the government’s ban on the commercial “khat shuttles” to and from Somalia is providing a boost to competing Ethiopian growers and traders.
The ban was imposed late last year after the Kenyan government expressed fears that the flights could be used to transport weapons and Islamist insurgents.
This apparently followed pressure from the US administration, which maintains the Islamist regime provided a haven for terrorists.
Kenyan legislators are also highly sensitive to security concerns, especially since two terrorist attacks in the country, in 1998 and 2003. But parliamentarian Maoka Maore, who represents the top khat growing area of Igembe, maintains that the flight ban and the more recent closure of the border with Somalia amounts to over-reaction.
“It is a draconian move uninformed by economic logic and by imaginary security concerns,” he says.
Like his khat farmer constituents, he initially thought the ban was a short-term measure but the weeks soon dragged into months and income in the region plummeted.
As demand fell, prices tumbled from 120 Kenyan shillings (R12,75)/kg last year to 40 Kenyan shillings (R4,25)/kg now — if there are any buyers.
Farmer John Murithi says: “This business of banning flights to Somalia over security concerns does not make sense because Somalia has been a troubled country for the past 16 years.”
A father of four, he says he has not made enough money in recent months to pay the school fees of his children. And these have become an issue now that many agile youngsters, who dropped out of school to work as khat pickers, have returned to their studies.
However, since the Ethiopian army effectively put the fragile transitional government in control of Mogadishu, the security situation has worsened. Islamist fighters are shooting at African Union peacekeepers and there are fears that some fighters may seek sanctuary and establish a rear base in Kenya.
With little evidence that the situation is under control, the Kenyan border closure and flight ban seem likely to stay, resulting in the impoverishment of the khat farmers and a large part of the highland region.
However, the red volcanic soil is fairly rich and also already supports the rather less lucrative crop of coffee. But the khat plantations are well established and there seems little likelihood they will be uprooted.
Some trade still exists, with exports going as far afield as Britain where khat is not illegal and where there is now a large exiled Somali community and resultant demand for the nar- cotic. But the biggest market outside Somalia itself is in countries such as Yemen and Saudi Arabia where Ethiopian traders are firmly established.
“Now the Ethiopians are gaining an advantage in Somalia. They haven’t closed their borders,” says farmer and trader Mutua Thaara of the Tigania area.
However, the Ethiopians are widely perceived in Somalia as unwelcome invaders. Kenyan farmers and traders therefore continue to hope they will again dominate the Somali market once the borders are reopened and the flights resume.
Given the current instability and the Kenyan government’s concern about Islamist infiltration, this may take years rather than months. Until then, poverty will continue to stalk the Nyambene hills.
‖Waruru writes for africanewsfeatures.com.
Source: Business Day, Mar 17, 2007