Monday, 10 March, 2025
Senate Health Committee considers the stakeholders participation Matrix to the Tobacco Control Bill๐๐จ๐ฆ๐๐๐ฌ๐ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐ฒ ๐๐๐ซ๐๐ก ๐๐ - ๐๐ญ๐ก, ๐๐๐๐
The Senate Committee on Health retreated to Mombasa County today to consider the Matrix on Stakeholder Participation to the Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill, 2024.
This comes after the Committee invited interested members of the public to submit their views on the Bill by way of written memoranda vide advertisements which appeared in the Star and the Standard newspapers as well as the Parliament of Kenya social media pages on Friday, 9th August 2024.
The Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill, sponsored by Sen. Catherine Mumma, seeks to amend the Tobacco Control Act, Cap. 245A, to further regulate the production, sale, advertisement, and smoking of nicotine products including nicotine pouches and vapes.
Tobacco Control Act, which was enacted in 2007, is outdated as its provisions did not anticipate the explosion and prevalence of the use of electronic nicotine products and nicotine pouches and did not provide for the regulation of synthetic nicotine.
While considering the over 5,473 stakeholder responses received, the Members of the Committee underscored the need to prohibit the manufacture, importation, distribution, storage or sale of nicotine products without the prior approval of the Cabinet Secretary for Health.
They decried the exponential increase in the use of nicotine products in Kenya over the years and resolved to restrict the manufacture, distribution, marketing, sale and use of electronic nicotine delivery systems, refill containers, and nicotine pouches.
โA World Health Organization (WHO) survey of Kenyan students in 2007 indicated that 21.2% of the students have ever smoked a cigarette with 15.1% of the students using a tobacco product at the time of the survey,โ Sen. Mariam Sheikh, the vice chairperson of the Committee, said.
โKenya Tobacco Boardโs survey in Kisumu, Nakuru, Mombasa, and Nairobi Counties on the use of tobacco and its products indicates that tobacco use among the youth is higher in learning institutions than in any age group,โ Sen. Richard Onyonka added.
The Legislators attributed the increase in tobacco use by Kenyan adolescents and youth to the unregulated distribution and use of vapes and nicotine pouches and resolved to face the situation head-on to save the Kenyan youth.
According to the World Health Organization, about nine thousand (9,000) annual deaths in Kenya are linked to causes that are related to tobacco use.
Other Members present: Sen. Mariam Sheikh (Vice Chairperson), Sen. Stewart Madzayo (Kilifi), Sen. Richard Onyonka (Kisii) and Sen. Kamau Githuku (Lamu).