Emmanuel Jabungo: The police threatened to plan more weed on me if I don't pay sh10,000

A rastaman told a Makadara court that smoking bhang makes him feel good and forget his woes after his father abandoned them.

Emmanuel Jabungo was found with 15 rolls of bhang worth Sh300 on May 25 at Nyando estate in Njiru Sub-county.

“Police who were on patrol found me just when I had started smoking and they told me to sit down to finish it so that they could take me to the police station. Smoking bhang makes me feel good always and so who was I to decline? I then sat down to finish smoking but before I finished, the police slapped me and the roll of bhang dropped,” he said.

Jabungo said the officers took him to the station where he was allegedly asked to pay Sh10,000 but he only had Sh1,000.

“So, they told me that they will plant more rolls of bhang on me if I failed to give them half of what they were asking for,” he said. Jabungo said he dropped out of school after completing Standard Eight after his single mother failed to raise high school fees. He said he started smoking bhang at the age of 12 years.

According to a probation report, Jabungo was a trainee mechanic at a garage in Kayole estate and had pleaded for leniency. His remorseful family also offered to help him change.

Chief Magistrate Hellen Onkwani handed him a three-month non-custodial sentence to work at the chief’s camp.