A section of Embu County muguka farmers staged demonstrations protesting the recent ban on muguka trade in Mombasa and Kilifi Counties.
They claimed the move amounts to economic sabotage and called for steps to rescind the same.
The farmers, who assembled at the Ena Kutherema Muguka Sacco offices in Runyenjes, accompanied by muguka traders and brokers, decried what they claim to be massive job losses that will be occasioned by the ban.
“Many families rely on the business for survival. The ban will badly affect them,” they said.
Police watched the protesters from a distance.
The farmers insisted that muguka is a government-gazetted cash crop as they refuted claims that it is a drug.
Embu Women Representative Pamela Njoki Njeru, Deputy Governor Justus Kinyua Mugo and Kagaari South MCA Susan Wariru attended the protests.
Governor Cecil Mbarire was away in the US.
The demos came after Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir on Thursday issued an executive order banning the sale, supply and consumption of khat, popularly known as muguka, across the county.
He made the decree at Port Reitz Hospital, Mombasa, highlighting the pervasive consumption of the stimulant drug at the Coast, including among school-going children.
He said muguka traders have ignored laws put in place to safeguard children from the drug’s influence, with some even going as far as selling the drug to minors.
On Friday, Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung’aro followed suit and banned the entry, transportation, distribution, sale, and use of muguka within the county.
Mung’aro further ordered that motor vehicles transporting the product shall not be allowed entry into the county.
He directed multi-agency bodies to swing to action and enforce the order, warning that any officer who would collude with culprits would face the law.
The Embu County government said it would move to court to challenge the ban in the two counties.
In a statement on Friday, Mbarire said she would take legal action to protect the livelihoods of her community which she said pockets about Sh22 billion per year from the sale of muguka.
She called on muguka farmers to remain calm as her administration moves to solve the matter.
But the governors have refused to take what they termed as threats for the sake of their residents
