Anti-smoking lobbyists have accused the tobacco companies of trying to ‘sneak in’ new laws that support public smoking.
The activities say the proposed amendments to the Tobacco Control Act initiated by Uriri MP John Kobado will drag Kenyans 10 years back.
The bill proposes to restrict public smoking to between 6pm and 6am.
Head of the Nairobi-based International Institute for Legislative Affairs Emma Wanyonyi said the timing of the amendment bill is suspicious.
“The timing can only favour the industry, especially now when the industry is currently fighting anti-smoking regulations,” she told the Star.
Wanyonyi said this will bring smoking back to people’s homes and expose smokers’ relatives to secondary smoke.
“At night most people are at home and this means children and other family members will be exposed to dangerous tobacco smoke,” she said.
ILA was instrumental in drafting and lobbying for the Tobacco Control Bill that became law in 2007.
Prof Peter Odhiambo, chairman of the Tobacco Control Board, dismissed the bill as “manufactured ignorance”.
“The hours proposed for smoking are a sure recipe for breaking the law on no smoking in public places,” he said.
In a statement, Odhiambo said homes and family cars fall within the scheduled list of public places.
The bill also proposes that tobacco manufacturers share the cost of cancer treatment by contributing Sh150 million annually to a centralised fund.
Wanyonyi said this amount is too little compared to what is already gazetted in the Ministry of Health rules.
The regulations require manufacturers and importers to pay every year two per cent of the value of tobacco products manufactured or imported by the firm that financial year.
For instance, BAT, whose net revenue last year was Sh22.3 billion, would have paid Sh400 million to the fund.
Tobacco is the biggest known preventable cause of cancer and other non-communicable diseases.
Although cigarette firms pay at least Sh5 billion in taxes every year, the Health ministry says Kenya spends more than Sh15 billion annually to treat chronic diseases caused by cigarette smoke.
Cigarette firms are in court fighting to stop the stringent regulations that operationalise the 2007 Tobacco Control Act.
The rules make it illegal for traders to sell cigarettes whose packets do not have frightening images that include photos of dead babies, throats gnawed by cancerous tumours and rotten teeth. Other images are of shisha equipment, coffins and cancerous lungs.