DRUG OF ABUSE: Mairungi grows unabated in the West Nile Region

You could easily mistake them for casual labourers in one of Uganda’s tea estates as they go about picking the green budding leaves from the tea-size crop. Each of them is working tenaciously to fill his or her container with the leaves.

These are the khat farmers in the peri-urban areas of West Nile. According to www.merriam-webster.com, khat, popularly known in the West Nile region as miraa or mairungi, is “a shrub (Catha edulis) cultivated in the Middle East and Africa for its leaves and buds that are the source of a habituating stimulant when chewed or used as a tea”.

It contains a stimulant which is said to cause excitement, loss of appetite, and euphoria when ingested. In 1980, the World Health Organisation classified khat as a drug of abuse that can produce mild to moderate psychological dependence (less than tobacco or alcohol). The tender leaves are chewed, usually together with chewing gum to reduce the bitterness.

Increasing mairungi business
Although there is no formal record of when mairungi growing was introduced in the West Nile region, the business seems to be growing in leaps and bounds. Herbert Angundru, 35, owns a quarter acre of mairungi and has built a semi-permanent house from selling the crop. He values the house at Shs10m, which money he says he was able to save when he started growing the plant 16 years ago.

Growing the crop
“After planting the suckers, you need to weed them regularly, at least twice a week,” Angundru says. He says the plant also requires frequent spraying since the leaves are not only liked by human beings but also pests, mainly worms. “There are some greenish worms that like the leaves so much. They eat those leaves at an alarming rate so spraying with pesticides is done immediately after seeing any signs of the pests. But you have to wait for two to three weeks after spraying before you resume harvesting,” he says.

According to Angundru, harvesting is done throughout the year although yields are better during the rainy season. The plant if well maintained can yield for over 50 years.
He says he used to chew mairungi but stopped a year ago after he got “fed-up” of the habit.

Wilson Olea, 64, a father of nine with two wives, owns an acre of the crop in Nalibe village in Kijomoro Sub-county. Unfortunately, he says he has sustained his family through the mairungi business. “I have been able to pay school fees for five of my children with the money I generate from mairungi,” he boasts.

His son, Felix Dratema, says they earn between Shs90,000 and Shs120,000 a week from mairungi sales. Driatre Twaha, 45, who chews mairungi himself, says the plant was introduced in the region in the early 1980s by Arab settlers in Arua town. Local farmers adapted and multiplied it before it spread to other districts in the region.

He says the leading growing areas as Ociba in Dadamu Sub county and Okokoro in Kijomoro Sub county in Arua and Maracha districts respectively. “These two places used to supply the entire region but other farmers in Yumbe and the rest of the districts are picking up,” Twaha says of the drug.

Ben Amigo, 27, says mairungi from different parts of the region has unique tastes depending on the soil type. About 100 grammes of the leaves can fetch one Shs1,000.
In most urban areas in the region, the mairungi business starts as early as 9am.
By this time a group of women in Arua town have hired a pickup to go and buy mairungi in bulk from Okokoro trading centre, about 21kms on the Arua –Koboko high way in the newly created Maracha District.

In the evenings, most trading centres are clustered with mainly youthful men chewing the leaves and smoking cigarettes as they play cards and chat. I struggle with some of my sources, as they ask for money to buy chewing gum before I can have on-the-record interviews or take their pictures. Not everyone though is pleased about the growth of this plant. “These people (mairungi chewers) are just idlers and town scoundrels. They are always dirty and have poor oral health,” says Jane Ayikoru, a 25-year-old banker.

Mairungi consumption and the law
The police Public Relations Officer for the North Western region, Josephine Angucia, says mairungi chewing can be a menace in society but there is nothing much police can do since the Ugandan law has not classified mairungi as a drug of abuse. “For us, we are more interested in arresting people that abuse cannabis (marijuana) but not mairungi,” she says.

In 2008, Yumbe District council passed a resolution to stop mairungi growing or chewing in the district. Several youth were rounded up, dumped in police cells and many mairungi fields destroyed by law enforcement officers. But the youth in turn vowed that that the then district LC5 chairman, Al-haji Rashid Govule Iyiga, would not secure a second term in office or any other elective positions. True to their word, Mr Govule lost a parliamentary bid in the last general elections.

In Maracha District, Lawrence Alisiku, an opinion leader and a successful fruit farmer, says efforts by authorities to curb the production and consumption of mairungi have proved fruitless due to lack of legal backing and widespread dependency on the plant by locals for household income.

He says the plant is grown in large quantities due to the high demand for the stimulant.
“It is common to find vehicles, mostly from Arua and Koboko, converging in the sub-county to fetch the plant. We have laboured to sensitise the community about the health implications of the leaves but the major hurdle is that the crop has not legally been classified as a drug of abuse,” he adds.

Alisiku laments that whenever the sub county authorities attempt to round up prominent consumers and producers of the plant, the police fail to find grounds on which to charge them.

In Arua, part ii, section 8 (2) (a) of the Local Government’s (Arua District) (Food and nutrition ) Ordinance, 2011 states that “a person or group of persons shall not-(i) play cards; (ii) ludo; (ii) chew mairungi; and (iv) any other type of activities that encourage idleness in the district in places along the roadsides or trading centres”.

Sub section (3) of part ii adds that “Any person who contravenes this section commits an offence and on conviction shall be liable to a fine not exceeding two currency points or community work not exceeding three months or both”. The impact of such legislation on the mairungi business in Arua district is yet to be seen.

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