Police uproot bhang worth sh2milion from Kakamega forest

Kakamega OCPD Joseph Chebii (right) and DCC Dorcus Rono (left) set on fire bhang worth Sh2 million in Shinyalu. (Duncan Ocholla, Standard)

Police in Kakamega raided a bhang plantation in Kakamega Forest and uprooted hundreds of cannabis valued at Sh2 million. This was an effort by a team of regular police, Kenya Forestry Service and the community public.

Police later set ablaze the bhang as curious boda boda riders pleaded to be given some, claiming it had medicinal value. But their pleas fell on deaf ears.

Deputy County Commissioner Dorcas Rono said they also destroyed nurseries of the plant whose seedlings were ready for transplant. “The street value of the bhang we destroyed is more than Sh2 million. It was uprooted at Kambiri in the middle of the forest,” Ms Rono said.

Carry out raid

She said police had gone to carry out a raid at a chang’aa den in the forest at 5am when they came across the plantation.

Bhang worth Sh1 million was destroyed in the forest two weeks earlier.

Rono said they would not relent in the war against drugs and substance abuse in the sub-county and promised to flush out all the drug dealers.

Shinyalu acting OCPD Joseph Chebii said cases of students being arrested with bhang, especially those in schools bordering the forest, were on the rise.