Makindu Law Courts Senior Principal Magistrate J.B. Ireri presided over the incident, while senior county security officials and detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Anti-narcotics Unit were also present.
This was meant to send a message to consumers and traffickers that the trade is illegal.
And in a similar incident to Tuesday’s, police in January 2020 set ablaze cannabis worth Sh1.8 million in Makindu.
The 1,870 sticks of bhang had been seized in 2019 in Kibwezi Town along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway on transit to Mombasa from an unknown location.
Even within the current prohibition by law, marijuana is commonly used in Kenya.
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Control Act criminalizes possession and use, trafficking; being found in a room where people use drugs; being the owner of a room where people produce or consume drugs and being found with drug-related paraphernalia.
In Africa, only South Africa has permitted the recreational use of cannabis, although it has stringent measures around it.
For instance, one cannot use cannabis in public.
While countries such as Morocco, Rwanda, Uganda, Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi have permitted the commercial growing and trade of cannabis, recreational use remains prohibited.
In the US, only 19 out of 50 states have legalized the recreational use of cannabis.
However, the use and possession of marijuana are still illegal under federal law.
As such, one can only be in possession of cannabis within the state it is permitted.
