Nairobi — High Court Judge Bahati Mwamuye has called for a national conversation on cannabis policy in Kenya, saying the country's current approach may no longer reflect social realities despite dismissing a petition seeking a religious exemption for its use by Rastafarians.
In his judgment delivered on Wednesday, Justice Mwamuye rejected a constitutional challenge by the Rastafari Society of Kenya seeking to use cannabis as a sacrament during worship, but dedicated part of the ruling to what he described as a growing disconnect between the law and changing public attitudes toward the drug.
"It is beyond dispute that use of cannabis in this country has become ubiquitous, and has arguably been so for many decades," the judge observed, noting that cannabis-derived products are openly sold in shops while references to the drug have become commonplace in music, popular culture and public transport art.
Justice Mwamuye stressed that the issue had outgrown the Rastafarian community and should be treated as a broader national policy question.
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"It is not a question for the Rastafarian Community only, it is a national question that cuts across the entire spectrum of our society," he said.
High Court rules cannabis not proven essential to Rastafarian faith, rejects exemption bid
The judge was, however, careful to clarify that his remarks should not be interpreted as support for legalising cannabis.
"This is not to excuse cannabis use or to argue that it should be legalized merely because 'the war is lost' as it were," he said.
Instead, he posed what he described as an important public policy question: "Do we now need to have a national social conversation, outside of courts and legislative houses, on what do we now do with this phenomenon in light of what it has become in our society?"
Justice Mwamuye went further, questioning whether Kenya's limited law enforcement resources should continue being directed at prosecuting people found with small quantities of cannabis for personal use.
"That conversation could, perhaps, even extend to whether the expenditure of our nation's very scarce law enforcement and prosecutorial resources on small amounts possession or personal use is appropriate; given that those resources are the same ones we deploy to address sexual offences, robberies with violence, assaults, and other grave offences," he said.
He concluded by urging the country to confront the issue openly rather than ignore it.
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"We ought to have a full and frank conversation on cannabis and which direction we should take. The status quo appears untenable," Justice Mwamuye said.
In dismissing the Rastafari Society's petition, Mwamuye found that the applicants had failed to prove cannabis is an essential tenet of their faith and had not exhausted available legal remedies before seeking constitutional relief.
