Two suspected drug peddlers were on Wednesday arrested in Busia and three bales of bhang seized by DCI detectives.
DCI boss Mohamed Amin said in a statement on X that the narcotic drug was stashed in backpacks and was believed to be destined for Nairobi.
The arrest, he said, was conducted by officers from the the Anti-Narcotics Unit (ANU) based in Busia.
The male suspects aged 26 and 29 were arrested following information from members of the public, he said.
The top sleuth said the informants told the detectives that the duo was spotted at the busy Busia bus station while preparing to board a Nairobi-bound bus carrying luggage they suspected was narcotics.
“Anti-narcotics officers responded swiftly and managed to arrest the two, and upon thorough search discovered the 12kg of cannabis sativa with an approximate street value of Sh360,000. Legal processes have been initiated against the duo,” Amin said.
Possession of cannabis sativa, popularly known as bhang, is prohibited under Section 3(1) and 2(a) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Control Act No. 4 of 1994 (the Act).
The penalty section, being Section 3 (2) (a) of the Act, provides for imprisonment for a period of 10 years in cases where the person had the cannabis sativa for his/her own consumption.
The section provides thus:
“A person guilty of an offence under subsection (1) shall be liable to, in respect to cannabis sativa, where the person satisfied the court that the cannabis was intended solely for his own consumption, to imprisonment for 10 years and in any other case to imprisonment for 20 years.”
The court can, however, lawfully impose any shorter term of imprisonment.
Although Section 3 (2) (a) of the Act does not expressly provide for a fine, the court can lawfully in accordance with Section 26 (3) of the Penal Code sentence the offender to pay a reasonable fine in substitution for imprisonment.
Meanwhile, Section 4(a) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotrophic Substances Control Act provides as follows:
Any person who trafficks in any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance or any substance represented or held out by him to be a narcotic drug or psychotropic substance shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine of one million shillings or three times the market value of the narcotic drug or psychotropic substance, whichever is the greater.
