• Instead of being a part of the growing market, Kenya insists on being left out
Are we really doing the right thing in Kenya when it comes to cannabis growth and sale?
The knee-jerk reaction from many of our leaders is to call for stronger policing and harsher jail terms for using the drug, which is already illegal.
They are consistent in this reaction despite the fact that all such draconian measures achieve is to push the use of cannabis further underground, making it an ATM for criminals and crooked cops.
I got to thinking about cannabis, especially, over the last two weeks, when I kept hearing adverts for Cape Town’s fifth Cannabis Expo on an FM radio station I listen to in that city.
The expo, which closed on March 24, was advertised as: “A global marketplace for education and innovative products and businesses serving the cannabis industry and its medicinal, agricultural, financial and lifestyle aspects.”
Since 2018 or thereabouts, South Africans have changed the way they look at cannabis, and this progressiveness has brought them economic and social gains.
For instance, in March last year, the Western Cape Department of Agriculture unveiled the Western Cape Cannabis Framework and Implementation Plan (CanPlan).
The CanPlan provides guidelines for establishing cannabis (medicinal cannabis) and hemp in the Western Cape, and is aligned with the key objectives of SA’s National Cannabis Masterplan.
The plan enables cannabis to contribute to economic development, job creation, rural development and poverty alleviation.
Of course in Kenya, we have the “Ban Plan”, which so far has led us nowhere useful. That said, there was a time when change looked possible.
Back in March 2019, New York-based company GoIP Global Inc, whose core business appeared to be mobile media services solutions, announced that it had obtained a licence to cultivate cannabis (bhang) on 500 acres in Kenya.
The announcement came at a time when Kenya had joined the global conversation about the regulation and control of cannabis.
About six months earlier, Kibra MP Ken Okoth had signalled his intention to introduce legislation in the form of the Marijuana Control Bill, 2018. Okoth, was calling for the decriminalisation of the growth and use of bhang.
His bill also proposed the expunging of criminal records for Kenyans with prior convictions of cannabis use. The bill also sought to create a Marijuana Control Council, create a register of farmers, producers and sellers, as well as regulate licensing and offences.
In 2017, Ogot Gwada had petitioned Parliament, seeking the legalisation of cannabis. In his petition, Gwada claimed medical cannabis cured up to 6,077 medical conditions.
Gwada also cleverly appealed to the capitalistic side of the Kenyan character and talked up the massive industrial potential and use of cannabis.
Okoth spoke about the economic viability of cannabis in 2015, when he suggested that the government allow sugarcane farmers to plant cannabis for medical use instead. He claimed there was already a growing market in the US.
When Okoth succumbed to cancer in July 2019, there were calls at his funeral service for Parliament to support and pass his Marijuana Control Bill, which appeared to have broad cross-party support.
However, it would seem that Okoth’s Bill was fated to never see the light of day.
The GoIP Global Inc bid to acquire land and grow medical marijuana also seems to have been a pipe dream, because as soon as the news was out, the Agriculture ministry denied ever even considering such a deal.
I remember reporting on the CannaTech conference in Cape Town back in November 2019.
At that time, experts at the conference were saying that Africa’s pharmaceuticals market was expected to be worth $45 billion by 2020, and estimating that medical cannabis would make up about $7.2 billion.
Of course, that was before events in Wuhan took over the world for a couple of years. However, I can imagine the potential market has only grown since that time, and instead of being a part of it, Kenya insists on being left out.
The way these things go, we will only wake up to the opportunity when it is no longer profitable. Mark my words.