The Clerk of the National Assembly
P.O Box 41842-00100
Nairobi
MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF TOBACCO CONTROL (AMENDMENT) BILL SENATE BILL NO. 35 OF 2024
Den of Hope Youth Group is a youth-led organization committed to advancing public health, with a particular focus on tobacco control and the prevention of non-communicable diseases among young people in Kenya.

We appreciate the opportunity to submit our comments on the Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill. This submission is informed by our engagement with communities, participation in national policy dialogues, and collaboration with stakeholders within the tobacco control ecosystem.

From a youth, legal, and public health perspective, we recognize the Bill as a progressive step. However, we note that several critical gaps remain, which, if not addressed, may limit its effectiveness and create opportunities for continued tobacco industry interference.

Background
Tobacco and nicotine product use has severe detrimental impacts on the health, economy and development in Kenya. Tobacco use is estimated to kill approximately 12,000 Kenyans per year and is a leading cause of non-communicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory diseases like emphysema, bronchitis and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, pneumonia, and diabetes. It also exacerbates mental health conditions and health outcomes for tuberculosis and HIV.
In 2022, 46% of 2000 Kenyan patients undergoing treatment for chronic respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, malignant cancers and tuberculosis, had a history of tobacco use. Tobacco use costs the Kenyan economy Kshs 45billion a year due to direct medical/treatment costs and indirect productivity losses due to premature death, and absenteeism from work by tobacco users and their caregivers . For every 1 dollar that Kenya receives in revenue from tobacco, we spend 3 dollars to deal with the health and economic impacts of tobacco use
8.5% (2.3 million) of Kenyan adults aged 15-65 use any tobacco product . 12% of university students use any tobacco product while 6.5% (622,00) of Kenyan adolescents aged 10-17 years had tried tobacco at least once, and 2.5% (244,000) had used tobacco in the last 30 days .
2% of adult men and 1% of adult women aged 15-65 years use ecigarettes and 6.2% of Kenyan adults use nicotine pouches. 5.8% and 4.2% of university students use ecigarettes and nicotine pouches respectively. Ecigarette and nicotine pouch use is currently low among adolescents at 0.22%.
These statistics indicate alarming trends requiring the government of Kenya through Parliament to take action. Whereas adult tobacco use is starting to decline, falling from 11.6% in 2014 to the current 8.5% in 2022, use of e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches is high among university students who have lower rates of tobacco use (smoked and smokeless) at 3.2%. This trend is driven by aggressive marketing of new nicotine products (e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches) by the tobacco and nicotine industry. The reasons Kenyans gave for using these products were appealing flavours, attractive packaging, social media marketing and misconceptions about the health impacts of these products as they erroneously believe they are safer than traditional smoked products. The new nicotine products on the Kenyan market are currently not regulated under Kenya’s Tobacco Control Act 2007.
The Constitution of Kenya in S 43(1)(a) provides for the right to the highest attainable standard of health, S 42 the right to a clean and health environment, S 35 the right to access information, S 46(1)(c) the right of consumers to the protection of their health. Kenya signed and ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) on 25th June 2004. The WHO FCTC obligates Kenya to protect present and future generations from the devastating health and economic impacts of tobacco use and nicotine addiction.
The WHO FCTC obligates measures such as bans on smoking in public/100% smoke free public places, bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, large graphic health warnings and plain packaging for tobacco products, regular increases of tobacco taxes to reduce affordability and consumption, measures to prevent access by minors to tobacco products. The Tobacco Control Act 2007 was adopted to domesticate the provisions of the WHO FCTC but needs amendment to adequately cover new products which were not on the market in 2007 and new marketing techniques by the tobacco industry that deliberately target children such as flavours and online marketing.
Recommendations
The Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill 2024 was adopted by the Senate on Tuesday 3rd March 2026. The Bill is now currently before the National Assembly. (Insert name of your organization) supports the Amendment Bill for the following reasons:
• It introduces provisions to regulate the sale and distribution of ecigarettes including a ban on flavours, online marketing and delivery, and health warnings on their dangers.
• It strengthens provisions on taxation of tobacco products to ensure tobacco tax policies effectively meet government health and revenue goals
• It extends protections to prevent minors accessing tobacco products by introducing distances within which tobacco advertising and marketing should not take place near institutions of basic education, bans online marketing and delivery of tobacco and nicotine products since age verification is not possible through such means and bans manufacture or sell of tobacco products resembling toys, sweets or any other items that would reasonably appeal to children
• Improves government regulation of the tobacco industry by introducing requirements for registration/licensing, approval of products onto the Kenyan market and testing of products
• Takes into account devolution and the role of Counties in developing and implementing public health and tobacco control policies by giving them a seat in the Tobacco Control Advisory Committee and a role in policy making and licensing
• It strengthens education of the public and of tobacco users on the health harms of tobacco and nicotine products by increasing the size of the health warnings from the current 40% to 75% and the introduction of standardized/plain packaging for tobacco products
• Protects the environment by prohibiting use of single use plastics in tobacco products
However, (insert name of your organization), recommends the following amendments contained in the attached matrix to further strengthen the Bill to meet its objectives of protecting Kenyan health and strengthening tobacco control in Kenya:
1. A ban on manufacture, marketing, distribution and sale of nicotine pouches – given their relatively low prevalence among adult smokers, but high prevalence among university students with low smoking rates, the introduction and marketing of nicotine pouches is a deliberate move by the tobacco industry to target youth, adolescents and children and addict the next generation of tobacco product users. These groups are particularly vulnerable to nicotine addiction and its harmful effects on the still developing brain. Banning nicotine pouches would also protect children and adolescents who currently have low rates of use from introduction and eventual addiction to this products.

2. A ban on manufacture, marketing, sale and distribution of shisha products – this is currently provided for under Regulations under the Public Health Act. Including it in the Tobacco Control Act allows imposition of a higher fine for manufacture, distribution and sell that is sufficiently deterrent, and will further protect young people from shisha use.

3. Amendments to Section 7 on the Tobacco Control Fund to provide for disbursement of this Fund to counties, other government Ministries, Departments and Agencies with tobacco control roles, research organizations and to civil society – enforcement of tobacco control measures is a devolved function yet the Ministry of Health is not devolving funds from the Tobacco Control Fund to support county enforcement programmes. Further, certain mandates of the Tobacco Control Fund such as research, creation of public awareness are more effectively delivered by research organizations and civil society organizations.
4. Strengthen proposed measures to restrict minors access to tobacco products by increasing the distance within which marketing is not allowed from 100 to 300 metres, and increase the age to which minors may not access tobacco products from 18 to 21. This will bring the tobacco control laws into consonance with proposed alcohol control laws that also provide for 300 meters and 21 years of age and ease enforcement. It is acknowledged that the adolescent brain continues developing until the age of 25 and increasing the age of access to 21 provides a further 3 years of protection for adolescents from the harms of nicotine addiction.