Rastafari Society of Kenya (RSK) has moved to court trying to persuade it to lift the law criminalizing the use of bhang in the country.
They filed a case before the high court terming the law as unconstitutional for prohibiting the private use of cannabis by people proclaiming the Rastafari faith.
They are advocating for the state to allow the Rastafarians to use cannabis in their homes and places of worship; which the law says is illegal.
The Rastafarian legal advisors Shadrack Wambui and Alexander Mwendwa contend that cannabis is a ‘holy drug’ used to associate a Rasta believer to their ‘maker’.
They said cannabis is used by followers of their faith for medicinal, culinary and formal purposes as revealed in their Holy Book called ‘Sacred Piby’.
As per the legal counselors addressing the Rastafarians, the section which permits them to smoke weed is alluded to as ‘Nebra Negas (Glory of Kings) or through ‘thinking’ which includes the use of cannabis in their sanctuaries.
They however wants the court to do away with section 3(2) (a) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Control Act.
It states that any person guilty of an offence in respect of cannabis, where the person satisfies the court that the cannabis was intended solely for his own consumption, is liable to imprisonment for ten years and in every other case to imprisonment for twenty years.
