In many markets, policies that ban tobacco advertising through traditional media have forced the industry to focus on the point-of-sale (POS) as a critical channel to promote their products. In Kenya, the law prohibits virtually all forms of advertising and promotion of tobacco products. Although sponsorship by the tobacco industry is not completely prohibited,...
"After a long day, I'll go to a shisha lounge and just smoke with friends or sometimes alone. It relaxes me. In the same way that some people will enjoy a glass of red wine or need a cigarette to keep going while they're working, I like to enjoy my shisha. If I don't...
In Summary •Illicit trade costs Kenyans an estimated Sh153 billion a year in lost taxes and robs the state of resources needed for vital services. •It also funds other criminal enterprises, breeds corruption and finances extremism across the region. The Kenyan government has been urged to enhance surveillance and seal-off growing illicit trade between the country and...
Over 100 Kenyan tobacco farmers took part in a government-backed project to plant sustainable crops instead of the more usual tobacco plants. Their first harvest so far already yielded 135 tons of high-iron beans. Some 100 Kenyan farmers were part of a pilot project to help farmers transition from tobacco to alternative food crop farming. The...
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 8 – A recent report by the National Taxpayers Association says the Ministry of Health’s programmes involved in tobacco control are grossly underfunded, which means they cannot effectively fight the vice. According to the study, the Tobacco Control Board and Division of Noncommunicable diseases (NCD), are consistently underfunded. The survey showed that the...
Research is pointing to growing tobacco use in Africa while the reverse is true elsewhere. This is as worrying as it’s perplexing, considering the sustained anti-tobacco use campaigns carried out on the continent by lobbies. In a University of Chicago report, researchers who created a Tobacco Atlas after surveying 63 countries say there are more than a...
When we visited a 45-year-old Michael Okong’o at his rural home in Gogo village, West Kanyamkago Ward, Uriri Sub-county of Migori County, the healthy green crops were all we could see. One could hardly tell of the poor climatic condition of the area, with most lands surrounded with rock boulders. Okong’o’s home, sits at the boundary...
Cigarette smuggling has emerged as one of the most lucrative enterprises between Zimbabwe and South Africa, with border authorities seizing contraband worth millions of dollars in recent years. Last month, South African police confiscated cigarettes worth ZAR1,7 million (about USD105,000) from Zimbabwean smugglers who have taken advantage of porous border controls between the two southern African countries...
The Kenya Tobacco Control Board (TCB) has added its voice to the initiative to adopt alternative crops in tobacco-growing areas, saying the growth of tobacco is a threat to the environment. Speaking in Kakamega Dr John Musau, a TCB board member, regretted that tobacco farmers were left with acidic and unproductive soils after years of growing the...
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has intensified Tobacco Free Farms sensitization campaigns across 20 regions in the country ahead of World No Tobacco Day scheduled for 31st May this year in a bid to ensure reduction of tobacco-related deaths. Speaking to the press at the Agricultural Training Center (ATC) in the outskirts of Kisii town,...
