The Kenyan government is drafting a Bill that will outlaw smoking or holding lit tobacco products in public places, the country’s top physician said on Monday, a day ahead of World No Tobacco day.
Director of Medical Services James Nyikal said a draft of the Tobacco Control Bill of 2004 will be presented to the country’s attorney general before it is debated in Parliament.
Among the provisions of the law are an increase tax on tobacco by 15% and penalties for those found smoking in public, including churches, schools, bars, restaurants and sports stadiums.
”We have to make sure that the law is clear [and] it does not conflict with any other before it goes to public,” Nyikal told reporters in Nairobi.
”It will be illegal and there will be penalties for breaking the law,” he said.
In 2003, Minister of Health Charity Ngilu issued a policy declaration that banned smoking in public places, but it failed because it lacked legal mechanism for its enforcement, officials said.
”We estimate that tobacco kills 8 000 smokers in Kenya every year. Second-hand smoke kills 4 000 people annually in this country,” Nyikal explained.
”Kenyans used 30-billion shillings [R2,6-billion] to buy 10-billion cigarettes last year,” he said.
Despite giving the Kenyan government about five billion shillings a year in taxes, the country loses 25-billion shillings in addiction, disease, disability and death, according to official figures.
In March 2004, Uganda passed a law banning the habit, but smokers continued to puff away with impunity, as police have done little to enforce the ban.
Under the Ugandan law, both the smoker and the owner of the establishment where an offence takes place are subject to fines of between $10 and $200 (R66 and R1 330). — Sapa-AFP