Kenya's Ministry of Health is pushing for changes to the country's tobacco laws, in a move aimed at closing the gap between existing legislation and the rapidly evolving market for nicotine products. The proposed amendments would, for the first time, bring a range of modern tobacco and nicotine products under strict regulatory control, an area that has so far escaped firm oversight.
According to Citizen TV Kenya, the country already has legislation that deals with traditional tobacco products such as cigarettes. However, it lacks regulations to handle the technological advances in the manufacture and use of tobacco products, leaving newer items on the market operating in a largely unregulated space and outside the reach of current controls.
Among the products the amendments seek to capture are electronic nicotine delivery systems, vapes, nicotine patches and heated tobacco products. The proposed changes would place these items under strict regulatory control, a level of oversight that, according to the report, never used to be there, marking a notable shift in how Kenya approaches the new generation of nicotine products.
The ministry is proposing amendments to the 2007 Tobacco Control Act as well as the 2014 Tobacco Control Regulations. Beyond bringing new products into the regulatory net, the changes are intended, amongst other things, to strengthen the existing framework and ensure that the law keeps pace with the structure of the modern tobacco and nicotine industry.
One of the key elements of the proposals is an effort to enhance the graphic health warnings carried on tobacco products. The amendments seek to have cigarette packs feature more prominent graphics that clearly indicate the diseases linked to smoking, including oral and lung cancer, in a bid to make the health risks more visible and harder for consumers to ignore.
Health experts cited in the report suggested that the reform could considerably change the whole area of tobacco control in the country. There were also calls not to take the process lightly, with a view that rather than focusing narrowly on the new products and the structure, there may be a need to examine the entire act as the country works through this round of amendments.
Even as the push for the amendments continues, the ministry has also been decrying a lack of sufficient resources, including the manpower needed to enforce both the existing regulations and the new ones once they are passed. The concern points to a familiar challenge, where strong laws on paper can be undermined if there is not enough capacity on the ground to put them into practice, as reported by Citizen TV's Brenda Wanga.