As the afternoon sun starts to dip over central Kenya, the town of Maua buzzes with activity as the khat harvest arrives. For decades, over half a million people in this region have lived by the rhythms of khat, a mildly narcotic native shrub also known as miraa. Trading here in khat is a well-established routine. Every day, young miraa shoots — instantly identifiable by their red stems — are bundled and wrapped in banana leaves, packed in bags and loaded onto pickup trucks. Drivers then zip along roads at breakneck speed in an effort to ensure that the khat is fresh when it reaches consumers in northern and eastern Kenya, as well as the capital Nairobi, located 300 kilometres (200 miles) south. But for the last two years and counting, no air shipments of Kenyan khat have made it to Somalia. The country is notoriously poor and unstable yet is one of the biggest markets for khat, which is chewed to provide a stimulant and suppress the appetite. Mogadishu initially banned air cargo in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but diplomatic tensions between Kenya and Somalia have kept the ban in place even as other Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted. The election of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in Somalia last month raised hopes of a thaw in ties with Nairobi, and on June 10, Kenyan Agriculture Minister Peter Munya announced that Mogadishu had agreed to resume air shipments of khat. The news has sparked cautious excitement in Maua, where people are increasingly impatient for change.