Rastafari, a religious and political group seeking the legalisation of Cannabis Sativa, popularly known as bhang or marijuana, now want the removal of Attorney General Dorcas Oduor from office.
Addressing the press outside Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi on Tuesday, November 18, the Rastafarians threatened to file a petition for Dorcas' dismissal over alleged incompetence and negligence.
Through their lawyer, Danstan Omari, they accused the Attorney General of intentionally delaying the filing of a response regarding their petition filed in 2021, which sought the legalisation of marijuana.
This is after the High Court pushed forward the hearing of the petition seeking the legalisation of the drug to next year, awaiting the Attorney General's response on the matter.
Justice Bahati Mwamuye on Tuesday afternoon set the date for the hearing of the petition for January 14 and January 15, paving the way for the first hearing of the case.
"The government has not responded since 2021. We will discuss and file another petition for the people who are supposed to respond, that is, the office of the Attorney General," Lawyer Danstan Omari said.
He added, "We shall move to remove them from office for failure to respond. We are giving the Attorney General a serious public warning that Rastafarians have a right for their cases to be heard."
In their petition, the Rastafarians had sought the court's permission for the legalisation of bhang for religious, spiritual and medicinal use in the country.
The petitioners also argued that the current law, which criminalises marijuana, was unconstitutional and infringed upon their rights of worship.
"The government, which says that we should not legalise marijuana, should bring forth counter-evidence to challenge our petition because bhang is useful for research," said the head of the Rastafarians in Kenya.
"We know very well that cigarettes are bad, alcohol is bad, and hard drugs in general are bad, but people engage in these drugs and nobody arrests them, but they arrest a rastafarian with their drug," he added.
According to Rastafarians, Cannabis Sativa is a sacrament which they claim helps them in meditation and reasoning sessions to seamlessly connect with their creator, Jah.
