The intersection between hashish prohibitionism and police brutality
It’s 7 pm on a Friday, and I’ve been strolling house for the previous part hour or so. I’m at the homestretch, and I will be able to see my favorite speedy meals joint within the distance.
I ran within the morning, wiped clean the home, and stopped by means of a pal’s position to test on them. If any individual merits a bucket of fries and part a rooster, I do.
I’m misplaced in my ideas, strolling with my head down, palms in my wallet, Diary-of-a-Wimpy-Child taste. I don’t realize the police officers status forward of me till they’re proper in entrance of me.
I see six well-polished boots, and I glance as much as see 3 Management Cops, their hands skilled on their AK-47s.
I quit.
Smartly, technically, they quit me.
“The place are you coming from, younger guy?”
“I’m simply taking a stroll.”
“The place from?”
“The health facility.”
“Mhhm. You will have a health care provider’s observe or one thing?”
“I wasn’t ill, simply walking.”
“And the place are you going now?”
“House.”
“The place?”
“Simply in the back of the college.”
“Hmmm. ID?”
Whilst he research my ID, any other seems me up and down:
“Take a look at his hair. He more than likely has weed on him.”
All of them snicker.
“Smartly, do you?” he asks, placing my ID card in his again pocket.
I pause. As a result of, you spot, I do have weed on me. No longer a lot, however much more than I may stash in my socks.
In my blouse pocket, there’s a zipper loc bag stuffed to the brim with craft Durban Poison flower and a few natural RAW smoking papers. I’m nonetheless deliberating on what to mention when Cop 2 chimes in once more:
“You wish to have to be truthful, ‘reason we will simply seek you ourselves if you wish to have.”
I don’t need that. It’s pleased hour, and we’re on a hectic side road with school scholars streaming by means of in droves. And Kenyan police officers have a knack for being tough, so I’m frightened they’ll throw me to the bottom and rip my pants as they forcefully seek me.
I come to a decision to heed my mom’s recommendation to at all times be truthful.
“Sure, officer, I do have some weed on me.”
“Knew it! How a lot?”
“No longer a lot, only a couple grams.”
“And why are you strolling round with it? Are you a dealer?”
“No, sir, I simply were given some to smoke over the weekend.”
The opposite police officers, amused by means of my forthrightness, snort silently.
“What did you assert?”
“I’m no longer a dealer, sir.”
“Mhhm. So what will we do about this? You understand that’s a criminal offense, proper?”
“Sure, sir.”
“Proper.”
I do know what he’s getting at, however I additionally know that making an attempt to bribe an officer is illegitimate, and breaking two regulations without delay isn’t a good suggestion. I come to a decision to stay up for him to carry it up himself.
“You understand we will carry you in for this, proper?”
I do know they may be able to’t, as a result of they’re patrolling on foot and wouldn’t have a automobile to position me in.
“Sure, sir, I do know,” I say, “however is that actually important? It’s simply a few grams.”
“You’re proper. That’s why I requested in case you’re a dealer, ‘reason that’s who we’re extra excited about. When you had greater than what you do, we’d need to carry you in.”
I nod silently, and say not anything. Breaking eye touch, he gives:
“We will be able to more than likely paintings this out, regardless that. How a lot do you’ve there?”
I dig into my fanny pack and pull out a crisp thousand shilling observe. A contented gleam dances throughout his eyes, and I do know that that can suffice.
“Really nice,” he says, pocketing the money.
“And similar to that,” he grins to his colleagues, “the universe has purchased us dinner.”
He provides me my ID again, and I thank them for letting me slide.
As I stroll away, I say a handy guide a rough, silent prayer. My center is in my abdomen, and it takes time for my breath to go back to standard.
I don’t care about fries or rooster anymore, which is excellent, ‘reason those damned guys simply took all of the cash I had left. Thankfully, as my mom used to mention, “There’s meals at house,” and as I stroll on, I’m pleased this stumble upon didn’t flip all of the manner left.
Criminalized for a Plant
Ahead of I began smoking weed, I’d cross police officers on the street with no care on the planet. I used to be as sq. as they arrive, and there was once no explanation why to fret. There wasn’t a possibility in hell that my global and theirs would ever collide.
Then, on my nineteenth birthday, I found out the herb, and I’ve been a felony ever since.
You notice, hashish is against the law in Kenya. (I do know, proper? So 1963.)
We inherited some lovely strict prohibition regulations from the Brits, and so far, no legislator has been ready to overturn them. Positive, some have attempted, however right here we’re, nonetheless hiding pre-rolls in our socks.
We inherited the ‘reefer insanity’ advertising too—effectively, no less than our folks’ era did, which more than likely explains why we’re so reluctant to decriminalize it.
So right here I’m, strolling round on top alert for the police, they on top alert for me. They’re the enforcers of those anti-cannabis regulations, and they are going to sniff out that 3.5-gram bag like their livelihoods rely on it.
And that’s as it does.
As a substitute of curbing pickpockets and thieves, they patrol the Central Industry District for other people who are compatible the profile. You understand the stereotype: saggy pants, lengthy locs, Rastafarian colors, hashish leaf branding.
Policing, Profiling, and Extortion
They move round in search of any individual who looks as if they could have some weed on them, they usually arrest them. And ahead of we begin applauding their bravery, it’s no longer as a result of they’re seeking to create this pleased, drug-free utopia.
It doesn’t take lengthy for them to can help you know that they are going to can help you move at a ‘cheap’ worth. And since you stuck them in a excellent temper, they’ll even can help you stay your Durban Poison!
Every now and then, regardless that, you stumble upon the satan’s spawn, and they are going to move to all lengths to squeeze that cash out of you. When you don’t comply, they’ll throw you behind a squad automobile and power round, in search of different folks that are compatible the profile.
You’ll finally end up in a pissy cellular at a station 30 kilometers clear of the place they arrested you. And also you higher hope it’s no longer a Friday evening, ‘reason you then’ll be in there all weekend.
Afraid and determined, many are pleased to pay no matter it takes to stay the cuffs from approaching. That’s what the police officers depend on.
Pay up, they inform you, and it received’t move farther than right here.
Whilst I’m a loc’d gentleman who does put on saggy pants, I’ve been ready to stroll clear of such circumstances unscathed. Every now and then, I achieve this by means of leaving the sort officer a ‘tip’ for his or her nice detective paintings.
Different occasions, I quit them ahead of they quit me, and ask them for instructions. This works incessantly.
However many of us aren’t as fortunate.
For some, this random stop-and-search briefly escalates from a irritating inconvenience to a fateful incident. We now have our justifiable share of trigger-happy and power-hungry law enforcement officials right here, fast to escalate even essentially the most minor encounters.
Give such police officers cheap reason (aka “I smelled marijuana”) and you’ve got the substances for a potent and scrumptious dish of crisis.
Hashish is the pretext that those corrupt law enforcement officials use to determine touch ahead of they may be able to extort you for bribes. And in case you fail to conform or if truth be told haven’t any cash to offer, you meet brute power.
Analysis from the USA unearths that decriminalization and legalization cut back hashish arrests and decrease the speed of drug-search job by means of police, which in flip reduces regimen police-civilian contacts that may escalate into violence
If hashish turned into prison in Kenya lately, law enforcement officials would have completely no explanation why to forestall me. Positive, they might declare to be in search of guns, however they wouldn’t to find anything else however 3.5 grams of weed and a few mint.
The struggle towards hashish in Kenya objectives younger folks, most commonly from lower-income neighbourhoods. As we all know, against the law whose punishment is a fantastic, or on this case, a bribe, is just a crime for the deficient.
So, within the pretext of curbing the usage of marijuana, law enforcement officials, an armed elegance of voters, unfairly profile, harass, and extort younger Kenyans who’re already suffering financially.
The Actual Price of Prohibition
Civil-society tracking displays the sufferers of fatal police encounters are overwhelmingly younger; one abstract of Kenyan tracking information reported that almost all of the ones killed had been adolescence (a Lacking Voices abstract put that proportion at about 79 %). If we decriminalized hashish, we might take away some of the not unusual pretexts for those encounters.
On ninth June, 2025, right through a disagreement in London Property, Nakuru, a person recognized in native reporting as Daniel Nderitu was once shot and killed. Native retailers reported that a couple of law enforcement officials had been detained and arraigned after the incident, and the Unbiased Policing Oversight Authority recognized a selected officer as the person who fired the deadly shot.
Some circle of relatives witnesses stated he was once shot two times; a autopsy file quoted in native media stated he died from a unmarried gunshot wound to the chest. The ODPP later really helpful homicide fees towards the officer.
After I write about and agitate for the decriminalization of hashish, it’s on account of circumstances comparable to this. A person attempting his very best to offer for his younger circle of relatives shouldn’t lose his lifestyles on account of $50 value of pre-rolls.
I don’t need weed to change into prison in order that high quality and costs may also be standardized, despite the fact that that may be a welcome growth. I need hashish to be decriminalized in order that blameless adolescence like me and Daniel can stop to be criminals within the eyes of the legislation.
This text is from an exterior, unpaid contributor. It does no longer constitute Top Occasions’ reporting and has no longer been edited for content material or accuracy.
