Residents of Kinangop area in Nyandarua County were on Wednesday, June 8 pleasantly shocked after a youthful man surrendered 20,000 rolls of bhang worth Ksh1M to a church as he turned over a new leaf.
Identified as Stephen Kamau, the former peddler of the drug labelled illegal in Kenya said he does not care about the financial loss he will suffer after he surrendered his stock.
“I have surrendered 20,000 rolls of bhang. I used to sell one roll at Ksh50. It all comes to Ksh1 million. I don’t care about the loss I have suffered by surrendering the bhang,” Kamau told journalists.
The former peddler said that he is hopeful of leading a decent life and that God will provide him and seven of his other ‘business’ associates with their daily bread after they turned over a new leaf.
“I used to work with a team of seven, selling bhang across, but we have all decided to stop, and start afresh, I know God will come along for us,” he added.
The church which later on surrendered the rolls of bhang to officers at Nyandarua Police Station congratulated Kamau for his bold decision as locals streamed to the church’s compound to witness the rare happening.
“This is very good news for us parents. He will no longer destroy the lives of young people. This is big news for the community and the society,” one of the locals and a parent said.
Kamau’s bold move comes in the wake of talk on Social Media and in Kenya’s public spaces after Roots party Presidential flag bearer Professor George Wajackoyah promised to legalize bhang if elected President.
According to Wajackoyah legalisation of bhang will allow Kenya to join the global trade for medical marijuana.
The Presidential flag bearer claims to have already identified importers in Canada where the medical marijuana trade is worth Ksh45 billion annually.
On Friday, June 3, Wajackoyah said he would spearhead the planting of bhang in the Nairobi Expressway should he be elected President.
“There are flowers planted where you are standing, for beautification purposes. That is a place which can yield regulated bhang. Even the things we have on the Nairobi expressway, flowers that have died. Why do we need all that yet people are dying? All that will be bhang,” Wajackoyah said.
The statement by the Roots Party leader has left Kenyans in wonder even as the National Campaigns Against Drug Abuse (NACADA) says the current prevalence of bhang in the country has been indicated at 1% among the 15-65-year-olds.
Bhang is reported to be the most widely used narcotic with the prevalence stabilizing in the ten year period between 2007 and 2017.
“There exist regional differences in the prevalence with the Nyanza region leading at 1.7%, followed by Nairobi at 1.3% and Coast at 1.3%, North Eastern at 1.1%, Central at 1.1% and Rift Valley at 0.9%,” NACADA said in a past report.
The younger generation is between the ages of 15-35 years old and has a high prevalence of 1.1% compared to the 15-65-year-olds that report 1% indicating a higher consumption rate compared to the older generation.
In a survey among secondary school students, bhang accounted for 7.5% of the overall drug consumption.
