Keypoints:
- Court rejects religious cannabis exemption
- Judge questions Kenya’s drug policy
- Rastafari community plans an appeal
KENYA’S High Court has rejected a bid by the Rastafari community to use cannabis legally during worship, ruling that the petitioners failed to establish a sufficient constitutional basis for exemption from the country’s drug laws.
The decision closes one chapter of a case filed in 2021, but it also places cannabis policy firmly on Kenya’s national agenda. Justice Bahati Mwamuye upheld the existing prohibition while warning that the country’s approach may no longer reflect social realities or the best use of limited law-enforcement resources.
Why the petition failed
The Rastafari Society of Kenya argued that cannabis was a sacred sacrament used during prayer, meditation and communal worship. Criminalising its possession and use, the group said, violated constitutional protections covering religion, dignity, privacy, equality and association.
Mwamuye, however, found that the evidence presented did not prove cannabis was indispensable to every adherent’s religious practice. Witnesses agreed that it was used as a sacrament but differed over whether its use was an essential requirement or a preferred expression of faith.
The court also found that the petitioners had not exhausted available legal and administrative mechanisms before seeking broad constitutional relief. It therefore declined to create a religious exemption from the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act.
The Star reported that the judge further held that any limitation on the petitioners’ religious rights was reasonable and justifiable under Article 24 of Kenya’s Constitution because the restrictions pursued legitimate public health and safety objectives.
The ruling did not declare Rastafari illegitimate or deny that cannabis has spiritual significance within the faith. Instead, it concluded that the petitioners had not met the legal threshold required to exempt one religious community from a law applying across society.
Community plans appeal
Ras Dimo, one of the petitioners, told AFP the judgment reflected ‘laws of oppression’ rooted in a colonial system that continued to suppress African spirituality.
The community’s lawyer, Shadrack Wambui, said the decision would be challenged before the Court of Appeal, although the detailed grounds of appeal have not yet been announced.
Rastafari supporters later gathered at Nairobi’s Freedom Corner, where they chanted, beat drums and smoked cannabis in protest, according to the Associated Press.
The dispute follows earlier legal recognition of Rastafari rights in Kenya. In 2019, a court ruled that a school had violated a pupil’s religious freedom by excluding her because of her dreadlocks. That decision was later affirmed by the Supreme Court.
That precedent recognised Rastafari as a protected faith, but Wednesday’s judgment shows that religious recognition does not automatically provide exemption from generally applicable criminal laws.
Judge questions cannabis policy
Despite dismissing the petition, Mwamuye devoted part of his ruling to the wider cannabis debate. He said use of the drug had become widespread and was no longer an issue affecting only Rastafarians.
The judge stressed that he was not endorsing legalisation. However, he questioned whether police and prosecutors should continue devoting scarce resources to cases involving small quantities for personal use when the same institutions must confront violent crime, sexual offences and other serious cases.
‘The status quo appears untenable,’ he said, calling for a ‘full and frank conversation’ about the direction Kenya should take.
The remarks give the ruling significance beyond religious freedom. They raise questions over whether criminal penalties remain proportionate, particularly in cases involving possession of small quantities for personal use.
They also leave lawmakers to consider whether any future framework should distinguish between personal, medicinal, religious and commercial cannabis use.
A wider African debate
Cannabis policy is evolving unevenly across Africa. South Africa’s Constitutional Court decriminalised adults’ private possession, use and cultivation of cannabis for personal consumption, while Lesotho licensed medicinal cannabis production as part of efforts to attract investment.
Kenya has not taken a comparable path towards broad legalisation. Under the current law, possession of cannabis intended solely for personal consumption can attract up to five years’ imprisonment or a fine of up to ($773), while use, cultivation and trafficking are treated as separate offences carrying different penalties.
The High Court’s intervention therefore leaves the law intact while shifting political responsibility back to parliament and the executive. Any religious exemption, decriminalisation framework or regulated system would require legislation, administrative action or a successful appeal.
What happens next?
The community’s proposed appeal will test whether a higher court takes a different view of the relationship between sacramental cannabis use, religious freedom and constitutionally permitted limitations on fundamental rights.
Beyond the appeal, the judgment may intensify demands for a review of Kenya’s drug-control regime. The court has refused to rewrite the law, but it has also made clear that ignoring the changing social reality surrounding cannabis is becoming increasingly difficult.
