Kenya’s High Court has rejected a bid by the Rastafari Society of Kenya to allow cannabis use for religious worship, ruling that the country’s drug laws do not breach constitutional protections for freedom of religion and belief. The decision is significant because it preserves Kenya’s strict ban on cannabis while also signalling that any change would need to come through a wider legal and political debate, not a court exemption for one group.

The case centred on a request to let Rastafarians grow, possess and use cannabis privately in homes and designated places of worship, rather than to legalise it generally. Justice Bahati Mwamuye said the group had not shown consistently enough that cannabis use was an essential element of Rastafarian faith, while the state argued an exemption could weaken enforcement and create trafficking loopholes. Under Kenyan law, personal possession can bring up to five years in prison or a fine of about $800 (£600), while cultivation can carry up to 20 years in jail and/or a fine of $1,900 or three times the plants’ market value. The ruling ends a six-year legal battle and comes seven years after a separate court decision recognised Rastafarianism as a protected religion in Kenya.