Email
Password
(Forgot Password?)
The war between the tobacco industry and various social organisations has gone a notch higher with lawyers allied to the African Tobacco Alliance and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids calling on the government to tighten its control legislations, to reduce the number of smokers in the country.
Chairperson of the Africa Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA) Rachel Kittonyo said on Saturday that more than 18.2 percent of boys and girls in Kenya aged between 13 and 15 were currently smoking.
"These are very worrying figures because in 2001 the figure was at 11 percent. This means that in a span of seven years the figure has almost doubled. If we do not do anything about it then in the next seven years, the figures will have shot up even higher," she stated.
Pamela Lambert, an official of Tobacco Free Kids, held that a concerted educational effort on the harmful effects of tobacco between the Kenyan government and citizens would reduce the number of smokers, noting that education had seen the number of smokers in developed nations go down.
Jump to full article »
Public health officers will be involved in the enforcement of smoking regulations across the country.
Public Health and Sanitation Minister Beth Mugo said that already, 80 public health officers have been trained as public health prosecutors to strengthen their capacity to enforce the Tobacco Control Act (2007) among other public health statutes.
Mrs Mugo added that a continuing programme has been launched for tobacco enforcers and public health officers, police officers, among others, are involved.
She said that the training would ensure that all towns in the country are free from tobacco smoke.
The government has proposed new measures to outlaw smoking on the streets and raise the price of cigarettes.
Public Health and Sanitation minister, Beth Mugo, has proposed amendments to the Tobacco Act to ban smoking on the streets countrywide.
Section 33 of the Act prohibits smoking in restaurants, public buildings, factories, hospitals and other public places but says nothing about the streets.
Some local authorities such as the City Council of Nairobi, Nakuru Municipal Council and Kangundo County Council have passed by-laws banning smoking on the streets.
The ministry has also asked Treasury to increase excise duty for Tobacco products to force more people to abandon smoking.
Last year, cigarette maker British American Tobacco Kenya donated Sh10 million to the Kenya Red Cross Society to help settle political violence victims. This year the disaster management organisation went back to the tobacco firm for help, but came out empty handed.
BAT Kenya has declined to support charity organisations because of stringent tobacco control laws that have not only banned smoking in public places, but has also prohibited cigarette companies from advertising their products and sponsoring social or charity events.
"Some people even suggested we should donate quietly, but we said any donation for charity work is contrary to the new laws. We have stopped sponsoring communities around us" says Julie Adell-Owino, the firm's head of corporate and regulatory affairs.
The tobacco firm declined to give financial support to the Kenya Red Cross despite an existing memorandum of understanding between the two organizations outlining parameters of co-operation.
Two weeks ago, the tobacco company also declined to heed President Kibaki's request for donations to support the victims of the Molo and Nakumatt fire disasters.
"It will be morally wrong to bend the laws to suit a particular moment. This will portray the company in a bad light, we will always stick with the law" says BAT, which supported the enactment of the laws on the grounds that it would bar children from accessing cigarettes and that it will also address health concerns levelled against tobacco products.
The stand taken by BAT has been replicated by other tobacco manufacturing firms in Kenya and it is likely to hurt social amenities supported by these firms. . . .
Last year, BAT Kenya donated 300 computers to schools and this earned it a seat on the country's ICT board. As a result of the stringent anti smoking laws, tobacco firms have been left sitting on millions of shillings allocated for social responsibility activities but which they cannot spend.
Kenya began a week of mourning on Monday for at least 142 people who died in a petrol tanker blaze and another fire in a Nairobi supermarket that have brought a torrent of criticism of poor disaster preparedness.
Flags flew at half-mast and official functions were put on hold as rescuers continued to pull charred bodies from both disaster sites and relatives hunted for missing people.
In one of Kenya's worst accidents of recent times, at least 115 people died when a crowd scrabbling for free fuel crowded round a tanker that crashed near central Molo town Saturday. The toll rose by nine from deaths overnight in hospital.
A cigarette set off the blaze, engulfing the crowd in flames, and also leaving nearly 200 people injured. . . .
Most officials said a cigarette caused the Molo blaze.
Some witnesses said a man angered at being stopped by police from scooping petrol threw a cigarette butt on the ground deliberately.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Effective Tuesday, smoking is now prohibited in all public places such as offices and workplaces, court and public buildings, factories, cinema halls, theatres, video houses, disco halls, hospitals and other health institutions.
Other restricted public places are restaurants, hotels, bars, markets, children's homes, residential houses, places of worship, police stations, public transport terminals, stadiums, airports, commuter boats, trains, ferries or any other public conveyance places.
"However, owners or managers of prohibited smoking areas such as hotels and bars will be allowed to set aside designated smoking zones within their premises," Mrs Mugo, who was accompanied by permanent secretary James Nyikal said.
The Act outlaws the manufacture or sale of objects, including sweets, snacks or toys that resemble tobacco products or would reasonably appeal to children under the age of 18 years.
Also outlawed is the promotion of tobacco products through testimonials, advertisements, trade fairs, promoting or sponsoring sporting, cultural or entertainment programmes.
A law banning smoking in public places and regulating tobacco products in Kenya came into effect on Tuesday, spelling the end of a convoluted legal tussle between the government and tobacco firms.
The Tobacco Control Act, passed in parliament last year but given a nine-month implementation period, provides a legal framework to control the production, manufacture, sale, advertising and use of tobacco products.
A new law banning smoking in public places and regulating the sale of tobacco products in Kenya is due to take effect nationwide within hours, an official said Monday.
Public Health Minister Charity Ngilu said the Tobacco Control Act, passed in August 2007 but given a nine-month implementation period prior to Tuesday's passing into law, is aimed at protecting public health.