‘Holy Herb’: Rastafarians Fight To Decriminalize Cannabis
Kenya’s Rastafarian community returned to the High Court in November, pressing for the decriminalization of cannabis in religious worship. They argue that the country's narcotics laws violate their constitutional rights to privacy and faith.
Despite cannabis's central role in Rastafarian worship, adherents face persistent criminalization rooted in colonial-era laws that branded the herb as a dangerous narcotic. Britain's 1922 Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, later entrenched in Kenya's 1994 Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, imposes a minimum 10-year prison term for simple possession, forcing Rastafarians to conduct chalice rituals in secret or risk arrest.
"This therefore makes it criminal for rastas to assemble in prayer and partake the herb as a sacrament," lawyers Shadrack Wambui and Alexander Mwendwa stated in a legal filing on behalf of the Rastafari Society of Kenya.
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Police raids on tabernacles remain routine across Kenya, with officers confiscating plants, destroying drums and sometimes forcibly cutting dreadlocks. These acts are viewed by adherents as spiritual desecration. Evangelical leaders reinforce the stigma, with Roman Catholic Bishop Wilybard Lagho questioning the faith's legitimacy in 2021: ‘I am not sure if they qualify to be a religion. … I think it's more of a philosophical question more than a legal one, whether any group can rise up and use a drug as a holy herb.”
Such attitudes, echoed in media portrayals of dreadlocked youth as criminals, leave Rastafarians marginalized in a nation where Christians comprise 83% of the population.
The Rastafari Society of Kenya saw its long-running petition adjourned again on Nov. 18, 2025, before a Nairobi court. The court granted a final extension, setting the next hearing this coming for Jan. 12, while reserving next March 12 for judgment.
At its core, the case argues that cannabis is a sacrament essential to Rastafarian spirituality, enabling meditation, enlightenment and connection with Jah. The petition invokes Kenya's 2010 Constitution, which guarantees freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief. The Rastafarians also seek protection against unreasonable searches and invasions of privacy, as police raids on private gatherings infringe on these rights.
“For Rasta to enjoy his freedom of religion, for Rasta to fully manifest his faith, it requires of him or her to frequently use marijuana, or what is commonly known as bhang, to create that connection between themselves and their maker,” Wambui said.
The petition, originally filed on May 17, 2021, challenges key sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act of 1994. It seeks to suspend provisions that criminalize the possession, cultivation and use of cannabis — known locally as bhang — for spiritual purposes in private homes or designated tabernacles. Simple possession under the law carries a minimum 10-year prison sentence and fines up to 1 million Kenyan shillings ($7,750), while trafficking can lead to life imprisonment.
The lawyers request that courts bar police from arresting, charging or harassing Rastafarians for possessing or using the herb in worship, and urge Parliament to amend the Narcotics Act to include a religious exemption.
Rastafarians draw on sacred texts like the Holy Piby — an early 20th-century Afrocentric scripture — and the Kebra Nagast, Ethiopia's ancient national epic, which they interpret as affirming cannabis as a divine gift for healing and insight. Biblical passages, such as Genesis 1:29 ("every herb bearing seed ... shall be for meat”) and Revelation 22:2 (leaves of the tree of life “for the healing of the nations”), underpin their theology.
Adherents burn the herb as incense, pass it in chalices during communal “reasonings” or consume it in teas and foods to foster spiritual clarity, not intoxication.
“We long to openly burn the herb as incense, pass chalices during our sacred reasonings, and prepare ital teas in our tabernacles — worshipping Jah freely without police raids or prison threats,” Sammy Njuguna, a Rastafarian from Nakuru County in Kenya's Rift Valley, told Religion Unplugged.
The faith, which originated in Jamaica in the 1930s amid anti-colonial resistance and reverence for Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I as a messianic figure, reached Kenya in the late 1960s.
Early Kenyan Rastafarians faced derision from dominant Christian and Muslim communities, who dismissed the movement as a cult. Media often stereotyped dreadlocked youth as idlers or criminals. Gatherings in Nairobi's Kibera slum or coastal Mombasa blended Nyahbinghi drumming — a ritual style honoring Selassie — with Amharic chants and shared chalices.
Membership figures are elusive, as the 2019 national census did not list Rastafari separately. Many Kenyans, particularly the youth, have adopted Rastafari beliefs through Bob Marley's reggae music and messages of social justice. His songs about resistance, equality, and African pride continue to resonate with Kenyan youth facing similar struggles.
This past August, the community opened its first formal temple outside Nairobi, a milestone in gaining visibility.
Despite the 2019 Supreme Court ruling affirming Rastafari as a legitimate religion — which protected students' right to wear dreadlocks in schools — cannabis remains a sore point.
The petition documents incidents of harassment, arguing that they amount to targeted persecution of a minority faith.
The case draws parallels to existing exemptions under the Constitution. Coastal and eastern communities legally chew miraa (khat), a mild stimulant, as a cultural and recreational rite. The Rastafari suit posits that their imported faith, now deeply rooted after decades, deserves similar accommodation.
Broader cannabis debates in Kenya add urgency. A 2022 National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) survey showed bhang use nearly doubled to 1.9% among adults age 15-65, about 519,000 people, with youth hit hardest. A 2024 University of Bristol report called for an inclusive national dialogue on regulation to reduce stigma and boost legitimacy.
Yet Rastafarians stress their claim transcends economics or medicine.
The suit might just serve as a litmus test for religious pluralism in the East African country. Success could echo U.S. rulings allowing peyote for Native American Church rites or ayahuasca in certain Brazilian faiths. Failure might deepen marginalization.
As petitioners gathered outside Nairobi’s Milimani Courts on Nov. 18 — some in red, gold and green garb, waving Ethiopian flags — the jubilation was palpable.
For now, chalices pass in secrecy from Mombasa's shores on the coast to Lodwar's hills in the far north. But as January approaches, Rastafarians hold to a refrain from their hymns: The herb shall heal the nations, if only the law allows.
Joseph Maina is a Kenyan journalist. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and media studies from the University of Nairobi. For the past decade, he has served as a correspondent for various print and digital publications in his native Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa.