Stephen Mbogo
Nairobi, Kenya (CNSNews.com) - Proceeds from khat, a stimulant drug originating from an African plant whose leaves are chewed, are suspected to be funding terrorist activities in the Horn of Africa, according to a new U.N. report.
Khat, also known locally as miraa, is grown in the highlands of Kenya and parts of Ethiopia and Yemen. Chewing the plucked leaves releases a chemical known as cathinone, which affects the central nervous system.
According to research at the University of Nairobi, chewing khat can produce hallucinations, bizarre thoughts, schizophrenia, high blood pressure, lethargy, mild depression and nightmares.
The drug is banned in the United States although in recent times it has been smuggled into the country for use among immigrants, particularly from Somalia and Middle East. In 1999, for instance, authorities seized more than 24 metric tons of khat at U.S. ports.
The international trade in the drug is estimated to be worth $50 million, and Kenya is the largest supplier to the international market.
The new worry is that the trade is controlled by Somali businessmen, some of whom are warlords suspected of sponsoring terrorist and other criminal activity in Somalia and beyond.
The claims are contained in a report presented to the United Nations by its panel on Somalia. The document recommends that the Kenyan government should ban the trade of the drug from Kenya, where it's grown, to Somalia.
"Several major [armed Somali] factions and authorities have a direct stake in the business, either through partnership with khat importers/exporters or by levying charges and taxes at points of entry," it says.
Aircraft used to transport khat from Kenya to Somali are believed to return laden with consumer goods, illegal immigrants - and possibly illegal weapons.
Kenyan police declined to respond to the report, saying they had yet to study it.
Kenya's National Agency for Campaigns Against Drug Abuse said that use of khat should be banned altogether, on health grounds.
Agency head Joseph Kaguthi said he had presented a document to a commission currently reviewing Kenya's constitution, detailing the extent of the abuse of khat and its effects on health.
"The drugs law is inadequate and that there is need to come up with more effective legislation," he added.
According to the U.N. report, Somalia has not itself become a haven for terrorists, but it has become a transit point for them.
If illicit funding channels were not stopped, however, the terrorism role Somalia plays in the region could increase, it says.
Investigators into last November's attacks on an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa, and a simultaneous failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli passenger airline with a shoulder-launched missile, believe the attacks were planned in and launched from Somalia.
Last month, Kenyan security agents arrested a key suspect in the hotel bombing, Suleiman Abdalla, at a hideout in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Meanwhile, a U.N. panel of experts has also expressed concern about the violation of a U.N.-imposed arms embargo on Somalia.
The panel, mandated to collect information violations of the embargo, said effective enforcement of the ban required the interdiction of arms shipments and prevention of all commercial relationships that may be linked to arms purchasing.
It cited Ethiopia as one country that has played an overt military role in Somalia, while Eritrea had also been a major supplier of arms and ammunition.
Yemen and Djibouti are also reported to have helped provide weapons to Somalia, in their case mainly to the transitional government.
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