Two police officers were arrested for confiscating and hiding two kilos of bhang at a police station in Nyeri.
Police authorities said there were also claims of bribery that led to the April 24 arrest.
The arrest was made after a woman claimed the two cops had confiscated the drugs and demanded a bribe for her release on April 15.
She told police she had to part with Sh100,000 for her freedom. But the officers did not release her narcotics.
They also did not book the case at the local police station as required to indicate they had recovered the two kilos of narcotics, police said.
Further, they did not book for safekeeping the seized bhang at the station.
The motive was not immediately established, officials said.
Out of anger and frustration, the woman informed a local politician of the incident.
The politician organised a protest to denounce the incident.
Police in the area demanded to establish the reasons for the planned protests, and when they were informed, they staged a search on the houses of the two officers who had been adversely mentioned.
The commanders from Tetu staged the search at Muthinga police post officers’ houses, whom the demonstrators had mentioned.
The woman claimed a female and male officer went to her house and picked up a bag that had the drugs.
They also detained her briefly before a bribe of Sh100,000 was successfully demanded for her release.
Police said a bag with a substance believed to be bhang, approximately two kilos, was found in the police woman’s house.
The second male officer was arrested after it emerged he was the one who picked up the bribe for the suspect’s release.
No report was recorded in the Occurrence book, and the station commander was also not informed, officials said, terming the development illegal.
Police termed the incident isolated, adding that a probe is ongoing to get more information. Cases where police are involved in crime have been on the rise. Police authorities say they have mechanisms for dealing with such cases.
Security agencies have in the past months mounted operations targeting drug traffickers and consumers.
Dozens of kilos of the drugs were seized in the operations. Some of the drugs are imported from neighbouring countries.
