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Residents protest over smoking 

Residents of Kabarnet Town have decried the upsurge in smoking in public places.

They now want the Government to re-introduce the ban on public smoking.

Led by former Kabarnet mayor Ambrose Kandie, the residents�complained that many people in the town were smoking without any consideration of non-smokers.

Children

“Others even puff in public places like hotels while people are eating,” complained Mr Kandie.

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• Wako says it’s legal to smoke, City Hall warns: you just try 

One year since the Tobacco Act banned advertising of tobacco products, the ministry of Public Health is yet to attain full compliance.

And last month, Attorney-General Amos Wako threw a spanner in the works when he lifted the ban imposed by various towns on smoking in the streets.

Lawyer Muriuki Mugambi, a smoker, was relieved that local authorities would finally revert to the law and allow Kenyans to smoke in the streets.

“All over the world, including developed nations, streets are smoking zones,” Mr Mugambi said.

He said the position adopted by local authorities had made smoking a punishable act, albeit one that is taxed.

The Attorney-General told the minister for Local Government through a letter dated September 19, 2008, that a public place did not include streets.

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NGARE: Caught in a smoking Limbo 

The smokers' debate is threatening to rival the Kriegler and the Waki Reports. For some time now, non-smokers have enjoyed a sense of environmental freshness when smokers were quarantined in particular areas.

Now apparently, we may have jumped ship according to the ministry of Local Government. The Ministry has gone ahead and beseeched smokers to puff away anywhere, anyhow, however they like as if there is no tomorrow.

The Public Health ministry on the other hand maintain that such smokers do so at their own peril. While this is a welcome directive to those of us who are 'second hand' smokers, we are afraid that the implementation of such a directive primarily lies with the local authorities.

So how do the holloi polloi behave? To whom do we turn to? At such times, I envy the university students who have many options when it comes to expressing their disgusts.

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NGARE: Caught in a smoking Limbo 

Gone are the days when the City Council of Nairobi battled to make the life of Nairobians more bearable. Emboldened by the powers that be, the City Fathers have continued to exercise draconian powers over the hapless and ignorant Kenyans. The confusion surrounding the smoking ban is a case in point.

How else would you explain the different interpretations regarding the legality of the ban? . . .

Now apparently, we may have jumped ship according to the ministry of Local Government. The Ministry has gone ahead and beseeched smokers to puff away anywhere, anyhow, however they like as if there is no tomorrow.

The Public Health ministry on the other hand maintain that such smokers do so at their own peril. While this is a welcome directive to those of us who are 'second hand' smokers, we are afraid that the implementation of such a directive primarily lies with the local authorities.

So how do the holloi polloi behave? To whom do we turn to? At such times, I envy the university students who have many options when it comes to expressing their disgusts. . . .

Has the Government been compromised by the Tobacco companies as it has been alleged from various quarters owing to reduced taxation? If indeed if that is the case do we expect the Government to own up and say, "Folks we bottled up, we need the money from tobacco firms to build health centres so that when you contract smoke related illness you have medical care."

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NDUBI: Ban on smoking in public places legal 

Last weekend, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Local Government purported to offer a legal opinion on the ban on smoking in public places.

The basis and perhaps only argument in the notice is that the by-laws passed by various local authorities banning smoking of cigarettes in public, particularly the streets, is illegal because another law that bans smoking of cigarettes in certain defined areas does not include streets within the definition. This viewpoint is wrong and incorrect.

It may as well be that the Tobacco Control Act may not contemplate public streets as places of smoking ban, but that does no make the respective city or local authority by laws baseless. . . .

If the PS took the advice of his legal officers, he would have been told that a) governments don't amend laws or by laws through public notices such as he posted and b), that it is unlawful, under the Public Officer Ethics Act, for a public officer such as he is, to give false information to the public.

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Ministry and city council differ on smoking ban 

The central and local governments were on Monday reading from different scripts on smoking in public.

Whereas the Local Government ministry said smokers were free to light up in the streets and even inside their cars, the Nairobi City Council said those who do so will be arrested.

Town Clerk John Gakuo said the ban on smoking in public places in the Central Business District was still in force and those found contravening the law introduced last year would be prosecuted.

This was just hours after minister Musalia Mudavadi clarified that the definition of a public place in the council by-laws and the Tobacco Control Act differed and suggested that the latter was superior.

Smoking outdoors

Mr Gakuo’s remarks appear to contradict a notice published on Sunday in the Press by the ministry, which said those found smoking in such areas cannot be arrested under the Tobacco Control Act.

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• Reprieve to smokers as ministry backtracks on council by-laws 

Smokers would be trooping back to the town streets in glee, clutching and puffing away their treasured stick confidently.

Incessant threats by smokers to sue the local authorities have forced it to backtrack on council by-laws.

Following such threats the Ministry of Local Government issued a public notice that councils have been acting in contravention of the recently introduced Tobacco Control Act.

The by-laws locked out smokers from the streets.

The ministry was forced to eat humble pie after the Attorney General, Amos Wako, agreed that the councils had overstepped their mandates by barring smokers from puffing on the streets.

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• State moves to quash councils' anti-tobacco laws 

ttempts by local authorities to flex their muscles in the anti-tobacco campaign may soon run out of steam as the central Government once again overruled the provisions of some by-laws created by the councils to help fight smoking in public places.

Since last year, several councils including Nairobi and Mombasa have drafted by-laws that bars smoking in public places. Driven by a similar urge to curb smoking, the Government in its part made into law the Tobacco Control Act 2007.

This parallel sets of legislation however pose an instant problem with local authorities sticking to the provisions of their by-laws to push for the campaign while other law enforcement agencies turned to the Act for guidance.

And now the Local Government ministry has issued a fresh warning against any actions that would be taken against smokers outside the provision of the Tobacco Control Act.

"The Tobacco Act supersedes the Local Authority Act and by-laws that is inconsistent with it is null and void in the extent of inconsistent," Local Government permanent secretary Sammy Kirui said. . . .

The effect of this clash has been constant harassment of members of the public by council officials who maintained reliance on the their by-laws. Scores are arrested each day by council officers and made to pay fines for smoking in public.

"We hope this clarification will put to rest claims of harassment of the members of the public arising from the enforcement of such by-laws ... The definition of the Tobacco Act excludes smoking outdoors including any public street contrary to some of the by-laws that have been promulgated by some local authorities," the official said in a statement.

The development comes as a major score for local cigarette manufacturers who had voiced concerns over the council by-laws that were punitive to some of their customers.

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• Tobacco shares may not go up in smoke 

The debate over the control of the consumption of tobacco and alcohol have over the years been shaped by moral and religious convictions, which have over the last two decades attracted government intervention because of rising public health costs and deaths associated with these products around the world.

The Health ministry has been waging this battle for over a decade by shackling the ability of cigarette firms to make smoking attractive through marketing.

The next shape that this fight has taken with the Tobacco Control Act 2007 is attempting an even ambitious use of economic sanctions (in terms of stiff fines and controlling production promotion and availability) to regulate consumer behaviour and morals by attaching a negative social sting to public smoking.

According to experts, the harsh economic disincentives placed on public smoking and cigarette consumption through high taxes, court fines and jail fines could force a sizeable portion of the population to trade down from legitimate products sold by BAT Kenya and Mastermind to cheaper traditional alternatives and illicit products obtained through smuggling and other forms of tax evasion.

This will produce a big underground movement of smokers who fall below the radar of the ministry of health, but who continue to increase the public healthcare bill. . . .

"We believe the tobacco industry in Kenya is in the stabilization and decline stage of the industry life cycle," says an African Alliance analysis report dated July 22, after BAT released its half-year results up to June this year. "This is evidenced by declining profit margins, decelerating growth in domestic consumption." . . .

Overall, the company is positive about the new legislation and it plans to use it to steal more business from illicit trade. "We see this as a reasonable piece of legislation if it is implemented in an orderly manner. As a company we support regulation of the Industry as it provides a level playing field for all players," says Mr Gretton.

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• Kenyan firms challenge new smoking laws  

Hardly a month after the Kenya parliament passed a law seeking to seriously curtail use of tobacco in the country, tobacco firms have gone to court and effectively frustrated enactment of the new rules. These firms have argued that the law had 'criminalised smoking', making it hard for them to operate.

The firms wanted the enactment of the laws put on hold, saying that the provisions of the rules were unrealistic and denied them their constitutional right to make a living.

As as result the high court in Nairobi has suspended the law after an application by 2 firms mastermind Tobacco and multinational British American Tobacco (BAT) Kenya Limited until the matter is heard and determined, in a suit in which the attorney general and the public health ministry are named as defendants.

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British American Tobacco of Kenya First-Half Profit Rises 5% By Eric Ombok  

British American Tobacco Kenya Ltd., East Africa's biggest cigarette maker, said first-half profit rose 4.9 percent.

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One man's life as a smoker and why he quit 

As the smoking law took effect days ago, Joseph Oluoch was among the people applauding. He has even written a book, The making of a slave, to discourage people from the habit.

In his book he says he first recognised smokers when he was barely two years old. . . .

Oluoch got a degree after 11 years instead of four. He later quite smoking through the support of friends and a cousin. That was when he decided to write the book

"Smoking is like a disease which enters easily but is not easy to get rid of," he warns.

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BAT gets time to comply with Tobacco Control Act in Kenya  

British American Tobacco has been given six months time to comply with Kenya's new Tobacco Control Act, revealed The Nation.

In line with this, the warning that cigarette packages are supposed to carry will not be introduced until January 1, 2009.

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• NEWS EXTRA | New law chokes smokers' sanctuary 

it is one of the smoking zones in Nairobi; created after the ban on smoking in public places was enforced last year.

To a passer-by, the smoking zone may appear like any other street, but to this group of smokers, it is actually a sanctuary that they often visit to quench what most term "thirst".

Welcome to Nairobi, a city choking under the fumes of smoke where puffing in public places has been banned. . . .

And now the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation through the Tobacco Control Act has come up with another legislation- cigarettes shall only be sold in a package containing at least 10 sticks.

This is what annoys Zulfikar Mule Kome, a frequent visitor to the smoking zone. Mr Kome thinks the regulation is meant to discourage him from smoking.

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• Kenyan cigarette-maker seeks to reverse anti-smoking law 

A Kenyan cigarette-maker Friday filed a suit against a new ban on smoking in public places, opening a battle between the government and tobacco firms.

Mastermind Tobacco Kenya Limited asked a Nairobi court to nullify the Tobacco Control Act 2007 on the ground that it is "unconstitutional, irrational and not a legitimate exercise of the state police powers," three days after it entered into force.

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