Gunny bags containing cannabis sativa disguised as sacks of bananas.
Geoffrey Lingori, 58, walked into an Eldoret courtroom on Monday with the calm demeanour of a man who had long made peace with an unlikely choice he says was born out of years of joblessness.
While many of his peers may be looking towards retirement, the trained mechanics graduate has been tending a very different kind of crop on his quarter-acre plot in Malel village, Kapseret sub-county.
For more than a decade, Mr Lingori says, cultivating bhang became his main source of income after his search for employment yielded little.
Instead of working in an auto-repair workshop as he had hoped after graduating from the Rift Valley Technical Training Institute (RVTTI) in Eldoret with a certificate in mechanics, he turned to cultivating cannabis.
Appearing before Principal Magistrate Kimani Mukabi, Mr Lingori did not shy away from explaining how the illegal crop had become his livelihood.
Police seized 34 kilograms of cannabis, with an estimated street value of Sh1,032,000.
“Your Honour, it is true that I plant bhang on my small parcel of land as my main source of income,” he told the court.
He said he began cultivating the prohibited plant more than 10 years ago after failing to secure employment despite his training.
Mr Lingori said years of job hunting were marked by rejection and what he described as corruption in the employment sector, leaving him frustrated and without a reliable source of income.
On his small parcel of land, he said, conventional farming offered limited financial prospects, while cannabis gave him better returns.
“I have cultivated thousands of stems of cannabis right under the small farm for a long time without being noticed by law enforcers and I have enjoyed the returns,” he said.
For years, the operation went undetected.
A bhang plantation in Gwassi Forest, Homa Bay County on May 10.
But the quiet livelihood came to an abrupt end after detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), operating from Langas Police Station, received a tip-off about the farm.
Officers raided the property and allegedly found a flourishing cannabis plantation.
Police seized 34,000 grammes of cannabis, with an estimated street value of Sh1,032,000.
According to the charge sheet, on August 15, 2026, at Malel village, Mr Lingori cultivated cannabis weighing 34,000 grammes and valued at Sh1,032,000.
He faces a second count of trafficking after officers allegedly found him with an additional 50 grammes of the drug, valued at Sh1,500.
The arrest brought an abrupt end to a livelihood that had grown out of years of failed job hunting.
The irony is stark: the mechanics graduate who once expected to earn a living repairing vehicles instead spent more than a decade cultivating an illegal crop on a quarter-acre farm.
Mr Lingori is being held at Eldoret GK Remand Prison as he awaits further proceedings.
The matter will be mentioned on September 18, 2026, when the court will give further directions.
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