Weed millionaire: Police looking for man growing 'holy herb' in quarter acre farm

Police in Homa Bay County are looking for a farmer, who grew weed in his backyard plot in Pap Ndege Village in Kalanya Kanyango Location.

According to neighbours, they thought the evergreen quarter acre farm, irrigated using water from a nearby pond was a tobacco plantation. But after further investigation, the curious neighbours discovered that the green, leafy, plants which had grown up to three feet tall, were not tobacco, but fully grown cannabis sativa plants, popularly known as bhang.

After this discovery, they alerted police led by Homa Bay Deputy County Commissioner Jude Wasonga who raided the farm and uprooted the plants,

Homa Bay County Commissioner Moses Lilan said they suspect the farm owner is on the run, adding that the plants were taken to the police station and will be used as exhibit in court.

“We don’t know whether the suspect was just away or he had got a hint that our officers were going to undertake the raid. They didn’t find him but that does not mean he will escape the wrath of the law,” Lilan said. “This is a known person and he will be arrested. I urge residents to shun illegal economic activities because we are going to spare no one.”

He urged residents to shun bhang which he described as a recipe for violence and other crimes in the society.

This comes barely a month since the Rastafarian Society of Kenya filed a petition in the High Court to decriminalize the use of cannabis or bhang for 'spiritual' purposes.

“We Rastafari, who have been stigmatized and misunderstood, we have come here to say in agreement with the United Nations that the use of cannabis for cultural, spiritual and medicinal should be allowed for people who (have) been using it for many years,” Ras Lorjoron, the chairman of the Rastafarian Society of Kenya said.

In Kenya, cultivation, possession and use of Cannabis is a criminal offence under the Penal Code. If found guilty and convicted, the farmer faces jail term of between 10-20 years.