The residents of Meru county in Kenya have been crying and going days without the simple basic needs.
This is after the unscrupolous outbreak of the corona virus in kenya and Somalia which hosts the biggest market of the Miraa produce from Meru county.
The united kingdom and netherlands were also consumers of Miraa (Khat) but they banned it some years back which served as a big blow to the Miraa farmers.The then meru county Governor Peter Munya who is currently the agriculture cabinet secretary tried all means to bring the london miraa market back through negotiations with the United kingdom government officials but his trials were futile.
That was a brief history to let you realise where the miraa scientificaly known as Khat started.Lets get back to the agenda.After the COVID-19 outbreak some kenyan governors starting with Governor Francis Kimemia of Nyandarua county, Governor Ali Roba of mandera county and Hassan Joho the mombasa county governor to name a few held press conferences and banned Miraa consumption in their counties claiming that it would lead to increased spread of Corona virus in their counties.
This left miraa farmers without a market for their cashcrop apart from Somalia.This was just but the beggining, things got worse when the said governors started proving their seriousness.In Mandera loads of miraa were burnt in broad daylight in full stare of everybody.In mombasa the same thing was done, igembe central Mp Hon Kiringo called the county comissioner of Mombasa county urging him to abort the mission of burning miraa but his pleas fell on deaf ears.
The miraa farmers and businessmen were seen in national televisions expressing their anger and begged the meru county governor Kiraitu Murungi to fight for them but he did not seem bothered and did not hear any of their words.He acted like a dumb person which was a clear indication that he did not have the needs of his electorates at hand.However their prayers and pleas did not unheard or end in vail, Meru senator Mithika linturi accompanied by Mp Kiringo and few Meru MCA's held a press conference where they condemned the heineous act of setting Miraa ablaze and asked the governors to treat miraa as cash crop since it was recognized as cash crop and gazetted few years back.Atleast the meru electorates saw value in their votes and its through this that saw their relief today.
Today in his press conference President Uhuru Kenyatta clarified and cleared the doubts about Miraa crisis in kenya.He clearly termed Miraa as cashcrop and no county had the authority of banning miraa, he further ordered free transportation of and marketing of Miraa within kenyan borders.Celebrations were seen in different areas of meru county as the residents showed their happiness following the presidents directive.Together with miraa the president also announced free transportation of all foodstuffs without any restrictions. 
.However there were no restrictions made earlier by any county government apart from miraa.
This has served as good news and great ones for the miraa businessmen and farmers as they wait for Somalia to uplift their ban on the produce, this comes after 700bags of Miraa were burnt in Lamu county as it was being transported to kismaiyu.
In other news;
The president also ordered compulsory curfew of the counties mostly affected by Coronavirus, he banned travelling in and out of Nairobi county which is the disease's epicentre in Kenya with 84% of the CoVID-19 patients being residents of the county, no means of transport was allowed and also aimless movements were banned in the county for the next 21 days in an attempt control and prevent spread of corona virus in kenya.
Other counties affected by the curfew are: kilifi, kwale and Mombasa counties.
Before end of his presser the preident ordered a further release of 100m from the ministry of sports, culture and heritage to fund artists, actors and musicians in this hard times of the pandemic, this is meant to motivate them to continue entertaining kenyans.
Kenyans now are left with one question; will the president impose a total lock down in the country? Or it will just remain in the mentioned counties?this is what kenyans were waiting for today but the president went contrary to their expectations.
Photo credits;Citizen tv kenya
The deputy president Hon william Ruto woke from his silence and supported the presidents announcements in his twitter account.
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