Tobacco.org

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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