Coalition urges MPs to fast-track Tobacco Control Bill to protect the youth

The Kenya Tobacco and Nicotine Tax Coalition (KTNTC), has expressed support for the Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill (Senate Bill No. 35 of 2024).

The coalition has also called on the National Assembly to retain the strong regulatory measures proposed in the Bill, adopt recommendations from the tobacco control stakeholders for enhancing the Bill and urgently conclude the public participation process and forward the Bill to the Senate for consideration. 

Addressing the media in Nairobi on Friday, the coalition, whose members include Non-communicable Diseases Alliance Kenya (NCD Kenya), Kenyan Network of Cancer Organisations (KENCO), International Institute for Legislative Affairs (IILA), National Taxpayers Association (NTA) and Den of Hope, said the Bill comes at a critical moment for Kenya due to the recent change in the tobacco and nicotine market.

“Over the past decade, the tobacco and nicotine market has changed dramatically. Electronic cigarettes such as vapes, nicotine pouches and other emerging nicotine products have entered the market faster than our laws have evolved to regulate them,” said Harrison Andeko, programme manager at NCD Kenya.

He added: “These products are increasingly being marketed through attractive flavours, colourful packaging, sleek designs, and misleading claims that make them appear modern, harmless and socially acceptable.”

The Bill, which is sponsored by ODM Nominated Senator Catherine Mumma, seeks to seal regulatory loopholes by bringing emerging nicotine products under stronger regulation.

It also seeks to restrict flavours that attract young people, strengthening health warnings, regulating product standards, and introducing additional protections for children and youth.

“Yet as Parliament considers this important legislation, a campaign has emerged seeking to weaken, delay, or derail the Bill altogether. This Bill is about protecting our children and youth from addiction. It is about closing dangerous loopholes that the tobacco and nicotine industry has exploited for years. It is about ensuring that Kenya remains a leader in tobacco control rather than allowing decades of public health progress to be reversed,” said Andeko.

He added: “The question before Parliament is simple: Will we act now to protect the next generation, or will we allow the tobacco and nicotine industry to recruit the next generation of customers? That is what is at stake!”

The calls come days after the World No Tobacco Day 2026 celebrations on May 31, 2026, under the theme: "Unmasking the Appeal: Countering Tobacco and Nicotine Addiction."

The coalition said for those who believe this threat of nicotine and tobacco is distant, recent events including of a case involving a student at Moi High School Kabarak, who was found in possession of a vape, should serve as a powerful wake-up call. 

They said the incident exposed a reality that many Kenyans are only beginning to acknowledge.

“While much of the public debate focused on disciplinary and legal questions, a far more important issue emerged; a learning institution found itself confronting a nicotine product specifically designed to evade detection,” said David Odhiambo, executive director of Den of Hope.

“This was not a conventional cigarette. It was a sleek, discreet nicotine product designed to be easy to conceal, easy to use, and appealing to young people. The Moi High School Kabarak incident is a warning sign. A warning that tobacco and emerging nicotine products such as vapes and nicotine pouches are finding new pathways into our schools, our homes, and the lives of our children,” he said.

According to the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) National Survey on the Status of Drugs and Substance Use in Kenya (2022), the minimum reported age of initiation for tobacco and nicotine product use in Kenya is just six years old.

The 2024 Kenya Data on Youth and Tobacco (DaYTA) report shows the age of initiation is now five years for smokeless tobacco and roll your own and six years for nicotine pouches, cigarettes and shisha.

“That means some Kenyan children are being exposed to tobacco and nicotine products before they are even old enough to complete primary school,” said IILA chief executive officer Celine Awuor.

She added: “This should alarm all of us. When children as young as five years old are being exposed to highly addictive nicotine products, this is no longer simply a tobacco control issue. It is a child protection issue. It is a public health issue. And it is a national development issue. The threat is real and growing. Parliament must act with the urgency required to protect the next generation before this crisis becomes even worse,” she said.

Ms Awuor said Kenyans deserve protection from addiction.

She said contrary to misinformation, the Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill, 2024 introduces practical, reasonable and evidence-based public health measures among them to regulate electronic cigarettes, nicotine pouches, and emerging nicotine products under the Tobacco Control Act, prohibits additives and characterising flavours such as fruit, spice, herbs, candy,  that make nicotine products attractive to children and young people.

“The Bill also once enacted into law require child-resistant and tamper-proof nicotine products, limit nicotine concentrations in nicotine-containing liquids, prohibit disposable e-cigarettes, which are often the cheapest and most accessible products for young users, increase health warning requirements from 30 percent to 75 percent of the principal display area,” she said.

“Others are it extends pictorial health warnings to all tobacco and nicotine products and restrict sales of tobacco and nicotine products within 100 meters of facilities primarily serving children,” she added.

Globally, she noted that 121 countries regulate electronic cigarettes.

Of these, 87 countries have adopted full or partial regulations for sale, marketing, and usage, while 34 countries implement outright bans on the sale of e-cigarettes.

In Africa, Ethiopia, Gambia, Mauritius, Seychelles and Uganda have banned them.

She said the measures proposed in the Tobacco Control Amendment Bill 2024 are not extreme but are internationally recognised best practices designed to prevent addiction before it starts.

According to Prisca Githuka, vice chairperson of Kenco, nicotine products are not harmless - they have been linked to increased risk of breast cancer, cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases, lung injury, prediabetes, metabolic syndrome and mental health problems.

“The adolescent brain is still developing until the age of 25 years - nicotine is particularly harmful to young people as it interferes with the parts of the brain responsible for learning, attention, mood and impulse control,” said Ms Githuka.

“Finally, some argue that emerging nicotine products should be exempted from stronger regulation because they are marketed as “harm-reduction” tools. However, the reality we are witnessing is increasingly one of harm promotion rather than harm reduction,” she added.

Across many countries, she said, a growing number of young people who have never smoked a cigarette are being introduced to nicotine through flavoured vapes, nicotine pouches, and other emerging products, which are creating a new generation of nicotine users rather than helping existing smokers quit.

Every year, tobacco kills about 12,000 people in Kenya. In 2022, a study of 2,000 Kenyan patients receiving treatment for chronic respiratory, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and tuberculosis found that nearly half – 46 per cent had a history of tobacco use.

“The damage is not only measured in lives lost. For every US$1(Sh129) earned from the tobacco industry, Kenya loses between US$2.20(Sh284) and US$3(Sh384) in healthcare costs and lost productivity. The Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill, 2024, is an opportunity to change this trajectory. The MPs should ask themselves who benefits from the delay of the Bill, is it the government, industry players, MPs or parents? It’s neither of them,” said National Taxpayers Association CEO Patrick Nyangweso.

According to the 2022 National Survey on the Status of Tobacco Use in Kenya (TADSAS) Report, only 3.2 per cent of adults aged 15 to 24 years use tobacco products, while the highest use of tobacco products is in adult males aged 45 to 54 years at 15 per cent.

However, only 2 per cent of adult male smokers use e-cigarettes while 5.8 per cent of university students use e-cigarettes.