This lifting of the miraa flight “ban” was a political master stroke from the Kenyatta corner. Somalia temporarily stops miraa flights from Kenya as a security measure for the IGAD summit.
Speculation quickly interprets this unexplained move us a ban on exporting khat to the volatile neighboring country, causing a big furore in the miraa producing Meru County which a crafty Kenyatta sees as a moment to exploit.
Conniving with the Somali government, which is asked not to explain its move, after the reaction reaches fever pitch, the Kenyatta corner fans the loud protests and the political brouhaha to the chagrin of the headstrong Meru County governor Peter Munya on whose head all the guns were trained.
So when Kenyatta flies to Somalia for the IGAD summit and the Somalia government allows resumption of the flights at the end of the summit as planned, framing it as “lifting of the ban” as agreed with Kenyatta corner, he scores not one hat trick but several.
Thanks to this ” ban” and the lifting the tussle in Meru county’s political landscape is very well decided in Kenyatta’s favor. Almost.
