MIRAA MENACE

                           

Some of the politicians who support miraa production and distribution.

                       

Miraa is presently consumed and soled in mass like kales (Sukumawiki) if not more. Unlike kales, the business is flourishing and dealers have accident-free motor proboxes and extending bellies. Call it Khat if you thought this would be an official piece, reflecting a writer who went to a journalism class and tasked to include all forms of recommendations for it to sell. A social worker has little time for that. He does it out of concern. You can imagine what Kariobangi Chief would say if you went with a concern that the increased number of Miraa chewing is a potential health risk. I come from no community afande.

Man has always worked to his own destruction. And if you think this has been of disadvantage to him, wrong are you. It is in his nature to destroy self if not to cause harm to the others. This, he does actively or passively. Means matter not. The end is the goal. And when destruction shows its pangs, external powers, the rather inferior become superior. In desperation, he calls them gods. It does not matter whether he capitalizes their names or not. When someone says that in the other life he was a dog or a lady bird, he means that he is regretting to be a human. Or he longs to die and go back to the other life.

A man in Dandora carries a twenty-bob yellow paper bag hawking this precious leaves that were banned in UK sometimes ago. It was politicized to be a reaction to ‘Choices have consequences’ 2013 elections. The main reasons are that miraa is a strong stimulant that has effects as insomnia and temporary confusion. It can also make pre-existing mental health problems worse. I wish not to relate this with the Al-Shabaabs.

With few outlets, as the government would say, people should uplift their own economy. For this, animals of souls are doing perfectly. Both the young and old indulge in the dark and in the sun. They are sold in small quantities to reach even the poorest as Munishi sang about Maji. The paper bag is but a short-time storage point because the man, for sure, as he knows that pressure on urethra throws urine far away in open air urination, poor sons and daughters of the passing times, whose soil will never regret to have hosted will buy them before midnight.

Yesterday, during home visits to families in Kawangware, there crouched a young man lifting up and letting the leaves fall freely on a sack spreading in a winnowing manner. A colleague thought about drug and substance abuse in open. I was thinking about the man’s bare legs in slippers. His toes were dirty and enlarging an indication that he may be a victim of fake safari boots unchanging wear. If he touched them unconsciously and served a customer with bare weighing hands you can bet me the thought is more awful than the consequence of a belch. Poverty is his brother and places like Kawangware will grow worse if the rough structure he was in is replaced by two rooms with the other serving Kegs and Spirits.

Why people chew Miraa is a question that can be answered if we knew the day the universe came into being. Like bhang, some will argue that they are God given though they know not God. He gave all herbs to man to use. And to destroy him alike as he planted a tree at the Garden of Eden. Man inclines to what makes him ‘suffer’. For instance, my high school teacher said that a child was more likely to be curious to do what it was warned about. ‘It’ is not a derogatory pronoun. The more Miraa can be legislated, the increase in its attention and use. To let the situation control itself, let users make it their way to eternal life in case it is.

Hon. Mututho, NACADA boss during his campaign lecture against drugs in KU (11/03/2014 as per the diary) started by highlighting a very moving story about man. He said that he is a rough creature. In this manner, God decided to form a better being… a woman. Is it not Aristotle who said that women should stop seeking for equality with men because they are far much superior? He was not sarcastic. In all fairness, God improved man through a woman. She can multi-task, give new life and tolerate man’s cannibalism. I have seen no woman chewing these bitter tasteless leaves though I am not ignorant that there can be selective cases just as those who glorify men in bars and pubs at Kenya Cinema.

The face of a consumer.

In his paper of 2012 National survey on alcohol and drug abuse, there was a reduction of 5.5% in 2007 to 4.2% in 2012. It is my request that he reviews the statistics quickly enough. If he finds that there is still a reduction, let him send home the incompetent Miraa-abusing surveyors and do it himself. I will take him to Huruma- Koinange point, Dandora- Muguka base, Kawangware- Idling chamber, Kibera- Youths and Drugs and Kayole- Mother Love. It is alarming down there in coast and towns away from the capital.

We will use the public transport system of full blast music. Before we board, we will see a man in a kiosk at the stage selling groundnuts and chewing gum. Water may or may not be on sale. There hang banana leaves. Only men are customers. Satisfied, we board. His eyes will be fixed to the kind of mouths, pockets and small paper bags entering the vehicles, not to sit but to freely stand from one stage to the other. I will whisper to watch his wallet and phone. There will be no need of reaching the hotspots. Services have devolved!

Listening to him, one can draw a human heart blindly. But Mututho and his office- I may not forget the lady in company who had a loose neckline- should let it be. Let it be? Yes. Mututho cannot keep an eye to everyone at all times. Humans are stubborn beings and that is why they could only be slaves – not sold for wealth or adopted for goodness. Let the dying man die and the living man alive. Can you prevent man from the silent unseen whispers of vanity?

It should not be repeated that drug abuse diminishes academic performance, work output and health outcomes. If you raise your voice to say that mortality and morbidity rates are on increase as a result of these poisonous substances some will sing you to hell as reggae music does. These are wholesome indicators to poverty and underdevelopment. If a Miraa-full mouth complains of the growing rich in the country and the sickening poor sufferers, my question would be ‘What are you capable of?’ Communism failed when man gave birth to lazy children. Why should I work extra hard just to harvest equally with a good for nothing brother? Not even the evil gods can approve. Therefore, I’d urge the new home builders to invest more on their fences.

Life is a chance. There is no destiny apart from that you can create. Though man lives in a risky environment, only one risk is obsolete to personal degradation and unworthiness- being ignorant and having a shallow approach to life. No amount of governmental advertising and holding of seminars can keep us secure from the fangs of our self-destruction means.

Young people who are in the chewing business, some starting at an early age of twelve will grow up forever tasting the bitter part of the apple. What do you expect of such? They will undergrad education, indulge in pleasures, practice dishonesty and provide a good political stronghold for the next elections mafia. They will rig from opponents and kill them. They will impregnate young and old. They will rape and be raped. And when hungry mouths come into being, with no extra plate and land from heaven, they will seek to live in Kibera, Korogocho, Kayole, Kawangware and all the K all-time classical favourites. Do you think our slums are as a result of any super power curse? It is part of our poor creations. These children will repeat the vicious cycle of poverty, ignorance and keep the world in a state of good and evil. With no sponsorship coming from Germany or Australia, these children will remain a liability to the soil.

The campaign in suppression of supply and demand reduction will be successful only if the present ‘fallen’ man leaves the earth with no evil legacy trace for the new generation. I am of the view that to change the world, we should train our children to be the best. Which children? Children from healthy families. To mean no unhealthy family children? Yes, I may be forced to say. Just because you exist does not guarantee you to reproduce. The world needs a few focused individuals than nations of the other nature. We should therefore take in as many leaves as possible that before we stop we can no longer have fertile seeds to reproduce or capacity to bred.  Earth is full of the ‘suffering’ foolish man.

As a social concern, men have disregarded their roles of hard positive work to immediate self satisfaction and glorification. Women, in rush to be in equality, are following suit. Mentorships and civic awareness is neither for the victims nor the victims to be. It is for the innocent! Our laws and regulations are as weak as a spider web. We have village elders and chiefs who despite being challenged in reason lead unreasonable societies. In fear for their lives, they work sparingly. In desire for accomplishments, they crucify their values. This is a society that will hardly change itself.

A morally challenged brother would say that it is by the selling of the narcotic that businesses have flourished, children from Mikindori have been schooled and economic status of different parts of the country improved. It is a stimulant and ‘medicine’ too… Where is honesty in the whole thing? It is in the margins. The fact is that as others earn money, the king of pleasure and indulgence, some are hurrying their way to extinction while making Earth truly look a cursed place.

To sound accommodative, let me say that in all things men have a reason. Miraa is not bad if you do not take it in large quantities. God is good that he gave us Miraa.  How does it sound? Therefore let us go out and have (some) fun! For heaven awaits us.