[Kenya] Lucrative cash crop or leaf of poverty?

from The East African

Kenyans pay up to 17 times the internationally-recommended prices for some branded medicines, and up to three times for their generic forms, reports DAGI KIMANI

KENYAN CONSUMERS OF khat, known in Kenya as miraa are routinely spending more than half their household incomes on the intoxicant, deepening poverty in vulnerable households, a new study says.

According to the study, some households in drought-ravaged North-Eastern province are committing as much as Ksh800 ($11.3) to khat every day, more than they spend on education or healthcare.

The study by researchers from the University of Nairobi and the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) says that, in addition, most users of the stimulant chew it during the day, seriously affecting their economic productivity.

Khat is one of the most lucrative cash crops in Kenya's Eastern Province, with revenues estimated at over Ksh2 billion ($28 million).

Although the psychoactive substances in the plant are restricted under international drug conventions, possession and use of the raw khat plant itself is not controlled in many countries.

The psychoactive substances in miraa are close relatives of the restricted drug amphetamine.

"The majority of khat consumers spend more than half their domestic budget on the habit at the expense of such vital needs as education and medical care," says a report on the study appearing in the latest issue of The East African Medical Journal (EAMJ). "At least 40 per cent of subjects themselves blamed khat chewing for low economic productivity and inefficiency at work, while 32 per cent associated it with absenteeism."

IN KENYA, THE SHRUB HAS BEEN cultivated, traded, exported and consumed without any prohibitive measures since legalisation in 1977.

Miraa is the intoxicant of choice among non-alcohol using Kenyans, although it is also widely used concurrently with alcohol. In East Africa, only Tanzania has imposed what can only be termed a "soft" ban on the consumption and marketing of the plant.

Historically, consumption of miraa has been confined to the areas in which it is produced, mainly because its active ingredients are degraded within days after harvesting.

But the emergence of efficient transport systems, especially air transport, has seen the plant become an important export commodity to markets as far away as the UK, Europe and North America.

Six months ago, the British government said it was exploring the possibility of banning the plant, sparking loud protests from its Kenyan producers and exporters who said a ban would be unwarranted and contrary to the principles of free trade.

However, a detailed study by a British academic across Uganda and Kenya over the past two years has concluded there is no overwhelming case for a ban on the use of khat.

Susan Beckerleg’s survey findings, which were published in May in the Oxford, UK-based academic journal African Affairs, say that while opinions on the taking of khat across the region were strongly held, the medical evidence for a ban was not overwhelming.

Kenya currently exports at least 150 tonnes of the plant every week, mostly to Somalia, the UK, the Netherlands and Yemen. Hundreds more tonnes are consumed locally, mostly in the North-Eastern and Eastern Provinces as well as most of Kenya's urban areas.

More than 1.5 million people are thought to have experimented with miraa at one time or another.

"Despite the growing public concern about the increasing consumption of khat and other associated drugs in Kenya, few systematic studies have been conducted on the socioeconomic effects of khat chewing," the EAMJ report says, adding that as a consequence, no significant efforts have been made to educate the public on the financial or medical costs of the intoxicant.

The study says that, among the possible complications of khat use are psychiatric problems such as schizophrenia as well as conditions such as as heart disease, liver damage and hypertension. Kenyan health experts also say that the unhygienic manner in which the plant is handled during harvesting, transportation and marketing has led to the transmission of communicable diseases such as gastro-intestinal infections.