Two police officers were arrested on Friday, and 2kg of bhang, believed to have been confiscated from a bhang peddler, in Tetu, Nyeri County. Corporal Raphael Mukavu Nzwili and Constable Doreen Mwendwa Kaari, both attached to Muthinga Police Post, were arrested after a woman reported that they had arrested her and confiscated her bhang and later released her after giving a bribe of Sh100,000.

Detectives from the Tetu Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) launched investigations and conducted a search at the residences of the two officers. The bhang, according to the DCI, was recovered inside Constable Mwendwa’s house. Investigations revealed that the two officers raided the house of Mama Mary on April 15 and confiscated the bhang.

“The suspect was released after Corporal Nzwili was allegedly given Sh100,000. No report was made in the Occurrence Book, and the station commander was also not informed of the arrest and recovery,” the DCI said.

Earlier, before they were arrested, an MCA aspirant had led a demonstration in the area over drug trafficking and abuse. Police headquarters, however, termed the incident isolated, adding that a probe is ongoing to establish the involvement of officers in drug-related activities in the region. Cases where police are involved in both criminal and corrupt activities have been on the rise in the recent past.

Regulatory framework

 A recent report by the National Crime Research Centre (NCRC) revealed that despite the robust legal, policy and regulatory frameworks and law enforcement measures over the years, cannabis production, cultivation, trafficking, sale and consumption are still major challenges in Kenya.

Widespread corruption among some rogue law enforcement officers has been identified as one of the factors that promote cannabis production, trafficking, distribution and sale.

Other factors include the growing culture of normalisation of its abuse across the country; regulatory and compliance and border management officials and some National Government Administration Officers (NGAO); porous borders; availability of ready markets; higher monetary prospects and incentives and peer pressure, amongst others.

According to NCRC, without addressing the sources of cannabis, efforts to control its trafficking, sale and consumption in the country are likely to remain ineffective.

“Arresting petty traffickers, peddlers and consumers targets the symptoms of the problem rather than the underlying main source – large-scale cannabis trafficking networks,” the report states.

“Petty peddlers are at the bottom of the drug supply chain, and their arrest does little to disrupt the larger-scale networks that control the production, trafficking, and distribution of cannabis.