MPs Want Ksh250,000 Fine for Bhang Smokers

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A police officer analyses the net worth of bhang seized in Nairobi in 2020
File

Marijuana users will pay Ksh 250,000 fine if caught smoking the drug in addition to being charged with possession of the narcotic.

The charges for bhang possession vary from Ksh 2,000 to an unstipulated amount of money depending on the weight and valuation of the drug. 

MPs are seeking to amend the law and add the smoking charges through the Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Amendment Bill, 2020.

The legislators further want drug traffickers to pay fines of up to Ksh50 million in addition to life imprisonment.

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Isiolo police boss Joseph Kigen and Isiolo Chief Magistrate Samuel Mungai destroy bhang on June 23, 2020.
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National Police Service

The law currently dictates that traffickers be fined Ksh1 million, or three times the market value of the drug coupled with life imprisonment. 

Manufacturers and police officers who traffic drugs and collude with peddlers will also face similar charges. The fines will vary depending on the quantity of the drug they will be accused of trafficking. 

Possession of more than 101 gram (0.101kg) will attract the harshest of penalties, Ksh 50 million and life imprisonment. 51-100 grams will see suspects fined not less than Ksh 30 million and a jail term of over 20 years. 

“The principal object of the bill is to enhance penalties to the offence in possession and trafficking in narcotics and psychotropic substances,” Kiambaa MP Paul Koinange stated while tabling the bill. 

Several MPs and politicians have called for the legalisation of bhang. In 2018, the late Kibra MP Ken Okoth filed a notice in the National Assembly introducing the Marijuana Control Bill 2018 to decriminalise the use of marijuana.

Narok Senator Ledama ole Kina, on Tuesday, September 22, showed off a vast parcel of marijuana (bhang) plantation during his trip to Lithuania while urging the government to legalise bhang. 

"I am right in the middle of a firm in a place called Lithuania. What you can see here is actually Marijuana and it is taller than me. Why is it that we in Kenya are still stuck in the old ways of saying that this is an illegal drug? My host is telling me that this is Hemp and it is used for construction. If this is good in reducing the pain for cancer, why not legalise it?" he posed.

Below is a video of Ledama inside Marijuana plantation

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