How to globally set specific file types to be opened by kate as default text editor in KDE 4

Issue

• We want to change the file association, which makes kate the default txt editor
• Adding the earlier suggested settings for default.katesession did not make any difference.
• I also tried the suggestion to use and change the /usr/share/applications/defaults.list file
• It turns out that this file is ignored by KDE4.
• The only way to achieve this is by manually editing the file ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list;
• Is there a way to set this globally?