For some travellers, a Nairobi safari wouldn't be complete without at least one night of chewing khat (miraa). Kenya is very civilised in that it's entirely legal to get high on this African cocaine and it's a pastime that a great many Nairobians enjoy over the weekend. Dukas (shops) selling fresh miraa are spread throughout downtown Nairobi and there are quite a few in Westlands too. I used to wonder what the smell at Woodlands Place was. It smelled to me like South African 'biltong'. Like pickled meat. Then I got the smell when I was downtown, as they were unpacking. Then I knew.
Miraa has the same active ingredient as the drug cat (cathenone), but in much smaller quantities. A miraa session therefore usually involves a good few hours of ruminating. The active ingredient acts as an aphrodisiac but not exactly a male performance enhancer. But reports vary and I suspect if you can properly focus your mind it might be okay, sexually speaking. But usually you are so far away that sex seems unimportant.
The substance is grown in Meru and Maua mostly and is a cash crop that has made many a millionaire. It comes from an ugly gnarled tree. The crop is precious. They call it green gold.
There are four or so main varieties, and the potency of the miraa plant diminishes rapidly after it has been harvested. If you spend a little time in Nanyuki you may see three-ton pickups loaded with 10 tons of miraa racing through the town, on the way to Wilson Airport in Nairobi. The pick-ups sway under the load and nothing gets in their way. Daily flights from Wilson to Somalia and England put huge amounts of money into the economy of Meru and Maua but you'll never see much evidence of it.
The most common response to a cheek full of well-chewed miraa, or khat, is absolute silence. The chewer gets kinda introspective and seems incapable of saying much – or anything at all - for a few hours at least. The ruminator sits still, with a slightly surprised look spread across his face.
The second response (thankfully, less common) is that the chewer becomes an instant and irrepressible 'story-teller' and waxes non-stop, for hours on end, about his life, its general condition and then, perhaps inevitably, about the inevitability of Kenyan politics.
The two responses are, of course, highly complementary, with one large group sitting hakuna story, listening (feigning a deaf-mute condition), while one or two of their number rambles on in solo mode, stopping only to pop another ground-nut-accompaniment, or piece of sweet Big-G chewing gum into his mouth. These, to alleviate the khat’s bitter flavour.
In downtown Nairobi there is no shortage of miraa sellers (and certainly no shortage of consumers). Every few doors, the full length and breadth of the downtown streets, there is a ‘duka la miraa’ (miraa shop) that usually moonlights also as a general ‘kiosk’ (selling sodas, sigara, maji na mandazi) or a ‘wine and spirit’ merchant, selling lots of Kenya Cane or Kenya King. Particularly on a Friday afternoon, one will see literally hundreds of one-kilo packets of miraa, fresh from Meru, and wrapped neatly in fresh banana leaves, being unloaded from any number of trailers or pick-ups. And the number of buyers well-exceeds the number of packs being unfurled. Chewing miraa is more than a national pastime among the workers of Kenya – it amounts to an obsession.
Competition is stiff between the various miraa shops and their daily custom is dependent, obviously, on the quality of product being sold. Generally the product sells fast, and only here and there you will see an unhappy customer complaining about the low grade of the narcotic being sold, or perhaps moaning that the kilo seems to have mysteriously diminished in volume! For the rest, it’s a matter of buying one’s stash and then finding a decent place to chew.
For many, chewing will start on a Friday afternoon and might end a day-and-a-half later, on Sunday morning. Abstinence from Sunday morning onwards is somewhat forced - or else the chewer is unlikely to get any sleep before work starts on Monday. Miraa is often referred to as ‘African Cocaine’ and it shares many of the properties of its Andean counterpart.
While there are lots of miraa ‘dukas’ (shops), there are far fewer 'chewing taverns', if I may call them that. I mention this because, while miraa chewing is not particularly unacceptable as a social pastime, it is also not condoned as an activity that can be indulged anywhere or everywhere.
Interestingly, in Tanzania, miraa is a strongly prohibited substance, while the smoking of marijuana tends to be tolerated. In Kenya, on the other hand, miraa is completely legal and marijuana smoking tends to be indulged in for fear of death (well, almost).
If you buy miraa, you cannot simply stop at any spot to indulge your narcotic fancy. Rather, you have to find a pub or club that allows such, or you have to buy from a shop where there is also place to chew.
Klub House, aka K1, on Museum Hill, is nice. Good music too.
Klub House, aka K1, on Museum Hill, is nice. Good music too.
