Meru Governor Isaac Mutuma has declared war on miraa cartels and speeding drivers after assenting to the Meru County Miraa Promotion Act, 2025 that enables the devolved unit to enforce miraa regulations.
According to Governor Mutuma, the law will smoke out shadowy miraa exporters and cartels believed to be strangling farmers’ earnings.
Under the new act of the county assembly, Miraa nursery operators, growers associations, aggregators, transporters, importers, exporters and vendors must be duly registered and recognised by the county government.
According to the Act, the county government’s agriculture department will now keep tabs on production, harvesting, packaging and transportation of the produce, ensuring stakeholders adhere to food handling standards from the farm to the market.
Transporters will be required to have vehicles equipped to maintain optimal temperatures and hygiene to prevent damage, contamination and spoilage of the produce.
“This law brings to an end the dangerous speeding of miraa vehicles. Vehicles will have refrigerated chambers to preserve the produce while in transit. Miraa transporters have been condemned for years due to dangerous driving along the Meru – Nairobi road,” Mutuma said after he assented to the law.
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While traffic police have repeatedly attempted to tame the speeding miraa drivers, the culture has been hard to eliminate.
The miraa regulations stemmed out of the Kenya Bureau of Standards’ miraa code of practice that sets out how the produce is handled during harvesting, packaging and transportation.
To comply with food safety standards, dealers must also ensure their produce is traceable to the farm of origin.
Governor Mutuma said by licensing all value chain actors, the county government will weed out cartels that have hijacked trade for a long time.
Miraa farmers have been protesting over a shadowy cartel believed to be collecting a commission for every kilo of miraa exported.
Attempts by the Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe to set the minimum price, last year, became unenforceable.
“Despite miraa earning billions of shillings annually, only a few people make the money. Farmers have been getting the short end of the stick. This impunity ends now,” Governor Mutuma said.
He added, “The Miraa Promotion Act, 2025 is transformative as it restructures how miraa is produced and marketed. It replaces chaos with order and exploitation with fairness.”
Igembe Miraa Farmers and Pluckers Welfare Association, Japhet Karuiru said past attempts to identify miraa exporters had failed due to top secrecy in the business.
“A few exporters have been operating mysteriously, enabling them to exploit farmers. With this law in place, the county government will now have access to data from the Miraa Directorate and engage all stakeholders. The county government now has the opportunity to defend the farmers’ interests,” Karuiru said.
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Meru Agriculture County Executive Committee Member Jenaro Gatangugi said the act will enable the county government to give guidance to the miraa sector.
“This law is meant to bring sanity in the production and marketing of miraa,” he said.
The act establishes the Meru County Miraa Promotion Forum, a body tasked with overseeing regulation, policy guidance, research and development, licensing and enforcement of the law.
The forum shall consist of the county executives for agriculture and trade, the Meru County Investment Corporation managing director, four county chief officers and five representatives of Miraa cooperatives.
The law also provides for the creation of a Miraa farmers cooperative society to advance farmers’ interests.
The law will be enforced by a team of crop inspectors, public health officers, and multi-agency enforcement officers.
To finance the sector, the act has established the Meru County Miraa Promotion Fund, to fund the construction of aggregation centres, marketing and research.
Under the law, commercial transporters will pay between Ksh5,000 and Ksh10,000 for produce weighing between one kilogram and over 2500 kilograms.
Miraa processors will pay Ksh10,000 to the county while the exporter and importer licenses will cost Ksh20,000 and Ksh50,000 respectively.
By John Majau
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