Authorities at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), Nairobi, seized 150 cartons of miraa that had been passed off as vegetables.
Officials said the cartons labelled "Fine Beans and Ravaya", contained french beans and eggplants but underneath, they were stashed with miraa.
The cargo was seized at the Airways Cargo Export section where it arrived aboard a vehicle and six suspects arrested.
The suspects are expected in court to face various charges. Export of miraa is banned from Kenya.
In 2013, The Netherlands, which was the then biggest foreign market for miraa banned its sale-prompting outcry from Kenyan traders.
The UK was also a major market for the stimulant before banning it in June 2014. Kenya used to export about 20 metric tonnes of miraa weekly.
The UK banned the imports saying it threatened to become the new smuggling route for khat into Europe, where 15 of the European Union’s 27 states and Norway had already listed the stimulant as an illegal narcotic.
The remaining major miraa market is Somalia, whose unstable market occasionally affects the earnings from sales there.
Most of the miraa, which was being taken to UK is now being consumed locally, and earns farmers, transporters and others, significantly less money.
There have been fruitless efforts to unlock the ban. This has caused smuggling of the plant to various destinations including Europe and the US.
Leaders under the Meru parliamentary group met in August with the thorny issue of the welfare of miraa farmers taking centre stage.
The meeting at the office of Senator Mithika Linturi in Meru town discussed the woes facing the subsector reeling from export blockage in Somalia since the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak in March.
South Imenti MP Kathuri Murungi who deputises Linturi as the Meru PG chairman described the meeting as "routine".
Although the meeting also discussed Meru political future, it was the
miraa issue that took priority with legislators taking in concerns raised by the Nyambene Miraa Traders Association (Nyamita).
The lobby said legislators can help push the government to allow for the transportation of miraa by road through the border towns of Mandera, Elwak, Kiunga, Dagare, Kolbio, Dif and Hagadera.
Somalia opened its airspace early this month but miraa freight remained excluded.
Nyamita chairman Kimathi Munjuri said they previously took more than 20 tonnes of
miraa to Somalia. Cargo freight normally exports 50 tonnes daily.
“This export market has been lost for the duration the flight ban has been on and we expect our political representatives to be our frontline soldiers in such matters,” said Munjuri.
The PG also discussed the government ‘poor’ response to export market woes, still born projects funded under the Sh1 billion budgetary allocation in 2018/19 year to help the stimulant value chain.
They decried the general lethargic attitude by the government as regards the livelihood of a large section of
miraa growing population in five constituencies in Nyambene, Meru.
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