Public hearings on controversial tobacco packaging rules kick off

The Health Ministry will from today start receiving public views on the controversial new graphic health warnings that cigarette makers will be required to display on the packs of nicotine products. 

The public participation sessions will begin in Nyeri and Kisumu followed by Embu and Kakamega. Similar meetings with members of the public will follow throughout the country over the next week. 

The new rules will require tobacco manufacturers to display graphical health warnings covering 80 per cent of the packaging of cigarettes, nicotine pouches and e-cigarettes as it seeks to sensitise the public to the dangers of smoking. 

“The objectives of the graphic health warnings are to increase knowledge about risks associated with tobacco use, to deter initiation to tobacco, to reduce tobacco consumption and persuade tobacco users to quit and to break the challenges of languages and the inability to read text-only messages,” said the Ministry of Health in a public notice. 

Research shows that cigarette smoking is by far the most dangerous form of tobacco use.

It is associated with increased risks of a broad range of diseases such as lung cancer, oral cancer, pancreatic cancer, stroke and chronic obstructive lung disease.

Tobacco is estimated to kill 9,000 Kenyans every year, with the larger graphic health warnings expected to play a part in reducing this number. 

One in every two of all daily smokers, according to the World Health Organisation, will die prematurely because of cigarette use.

In 2020, data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) showed the percentage of smokers in Kenya was 8.6 per cent, with local health authorities looking to reduce this to less than five per cent by 2025.

Anti-tobacco campaigners have argued for increases in taxes to keep cigarettes out of the reach of many Kenyans, especially the youth getting into the habit. 

The graphic health warnings have not settled well with the tobacco industry, with players arguing that local laws do not distinguish between tobacco products and other nicotine products, such as nicotine pouches, which they tout as less hazardous than tobacco.

“Among smokers who want to quit, some manage to do so unassisted, but the majority don’t. Nicotine replacement products and nicotine pouches increase the number of smokers who are switching to these products, and moving away from cigarettes. Unfortunately, these replacement products are often not attractive to or sufficiently effective amongst many smokers. Often, they are also too expensive,” said one industry player, who did not want to be named for fear of victimisation. 

“There is a need for legislation in Kenya to separate Tobacco products from nicotine products and for an appreciation of the role played by alternative nicotine delivery products. The current graphic health warnings campaign does not distinguish between the two products.”