By Henry Owino
Nairobi, Kenya: Every year, smoking and the use of tobacco-related products kill approximately 6000 Kenyans aged 24 and above and about 8 million people globally.
This is according to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS)report released ahead of World No Tobacco Day marked on 31 May, annually.
At least 80,000 and 100,000 youth start smoking every day due to peer pressure, family or relative influence, exposure to cigarettes, ease accessibility to tobacco products, and conducive environmental conditions. The research shows that as young as 7 years old children smoke due to enticement from parents and are routinely exposed to tobacco in their homes.
The trend is so much that if guidelines are not instituted at the core of the families, in this case, the children in such homes are at higher risk of developing non-communicable diseases. Some cardiac and respiratory diseases such as asthma decreased lung functions at an early age without downplaying sudden infant death are indications.
This year’s theme for World No Tobacco Day 2022 is “Tobacco: A Threat to our Environment.” The campaign’s motive is to raise public awareness of tobacco’s severe environmental impacts, including its manufacturing, distribution, and waste.
Dorcas Kiptui, Head of Tobacco Control, Ministry of Health in Kenya said during research data collection done in March 2022, many people reported to have started smoking at the age of seven to ten. They smoke while hiding within the home compound or while going to fetch water, firewood, shop, market, or any opening opportunity to smoke.
“Many people reported they actually began smoking from age 7 due to family influence and they did it secretly. They would be caught smoking and consequently; caned, and punished, among sorts of disciplines administered to them to quit. However, after a few years, they could go back as their minds remembered vividly well,” Ms. Kiptui said.
Ms. Kiptui regrets the teenagers said after getting a little bit older and in school, they smoked even more through the influence of their peers. They, later on, influenced fellow school-mates into smoking as they joined colleges, universities, and other training institutions.
Peer pressure
However, Ms. Kiptui revealed most Kenyans start smoking at the age of 21 and continue throughout life forming part of the population who smoke. Currently, an estimated 220,000 children and 2,737,000 adults use tobacco each day in the country.
At least 25% of Kenyan smokers use hand-rolled cigarettes. Other use includes chewing tobacco and sniff yet another 6% use the outlawed shisha. The survey further reveals that it is 6.1% of adults who visits nightclubs are exposed to tobacco smoke and are secondhand smokers. This means the majority who entertain themselves with friends at nightclubs, are smokers thereby affecting the few non-smokers.
In Kenya, 2.5 million people are secondhand smokers while 11.5% of Kenya’s population (50 million) thus 5.8 million are firsthand smokers.
Again, a great number of those who smoke in Kenya are male.
According to Ms. Kiptui, the government through the Ministry of Health now calls for more new Child Protection legislation by Parliament to keep children safe from tobacco.
“Child Protection law is vital and there is a need for more laws to be enacted to keep children safe from smokers, or tobacco product users. Again, even child labor in tobacco growing areas and deforestation done during tobacco curing is against law,” Ms. Kiptui cautioned.
“Our children are our future, we need not to lose them because of adults’ pleasure and a shortcut to means of earning a living,” she added.
Anne Kendagor, Public Health Officer, Ministry of Health said in a family where a person smokes, he is most likely to influence others. And when they do smoke indoors, every stick of cigarette he smokes, the members smoke half of it as second-hand smokers.
“When a father smokes ten sticks of cigarettes within the house, every person in that house inhales smokes equivalent to five sticks of cigarettes hence second-hand smokers,” Ms. Kendagor explained.
Ms. Kendagor cautioned that there is no safe method of smoking tobacco. Whether cigarette puffs, chewing, sniffing, shisha, electronic smoking is all unhealthy and harmful to the body.
It is such twisted misinformation on tobacco use that has misled thousands of people to smoke and be harmed. Ms. Kendagor revealed that 50% of patients hospitalized in various wards across the country suffer from tobacco-related diseases.
“Nicotine in tobacco is very addictive. Addiction is a disease in itself and people of such nature need guidance and counseling,” Ms. Kendagor urged.
Tobacco throat cancer survivor
Robert Mwangi, Throat Cancer Survivor began smoking while a teenager due to peer pressure without knowing that tobacco is very addictive. He started with one stick of cigarette and gradually found himself a chain smoker.
“I began smoking as a teenager after being influenced by friends. I could smoke up to 20 sticks of cigarettes per day and continued as I grew up,” Mwangi disclosed.
Mwangi said the number of sticks he smoked in a day reduced while he was in high school simply because he could not afford it. He joined the school soccer team and stopped smoking for 5 years.
However, upon completion of schooling, Mwangi got employed and the urge of smoking came back. This time around, he could afford to buy a packet of cigarettes and so, the smoking continued due to the addictive nature of nicotine in cigarettes.
“I continued smoking until I was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer which is cancer of the larynx, or voice box in 2003, caused by my smoking habits. The doctors advised me, it was treatable because it was in the early stages of going through radiation,” Mwangi explained.
Mwangi lived well for seven years until cancer recurred in 2010. This time the doctors examined him and found it was too much to help but to go through an operation to remove the voice box.
He regrets that nicotine in tobacco is so addictive that once you smoke one stick of cigarette, it is very difficult to resist. His experience is that smokers may take a break-even for 5 or 10 years but once they taste just a puff, they become hooked.
“It is very painful for me that it cost me money to talk unlike everyone else talking for free. For me to talk, I use a machine to magnify my sound. The machine cost Ksh 120, 000 found in Europe while the battery that it uses last only a week costing Ksh 1,500,” Mwangi revealed.
His sincere heartfelt advice to smokers is to quit smoking immediately because it is a silent killer. Very soon complications are coming and will be very expensive to treat or cope with. Tobacco and nicotine products use causes diseases that drive one with his or her family to abject poverty.
“I would not want even my worst enemy to get into smoking because of harmful consequences I went through and now thousands of money I am spending on my garget to assist in projecting my voice,” Mwangi urged.
Tobacco and nicotine control in Kenya
According to Nancy Gachoka, Chairperson, of the Tobacco Control Board, Section 9 of the Tobacco Control Act (TCA) emphasizes raising awareness, educating, and informing the public on the harmful use of tobacco.
Mrs. Gachoka said tobacco regulations in 2014 enforce the use of photos on the cigarette packets showing harmful effects and other consequences of tobacco use. So, manufacturers and organizations trading in tobacco and its products must adhere.
She, however, said the TCA became effective in December 2019 after court case battles with interest parties on tobacco. With persistence and determination to protect innocent Kenyans, Tobacco Control Board finally won the case in Supreme Court hence law to date.
“However, before then we had in place Tobacco Control Act (TCA)2007, that limits any forms of advertisement, promotion, sponsorship and packaging and labeling of tobacco products with warning of harmful effects of tobacco. This had been enacted to stop tobacco industries from attracting children, youth, and adults who may not be aware of the harmful consequences tobacco exposes its users,” Mrs. Gachoka affirmed.
Mrs. Gachoka regrets that tobacco industries are still using other methods to advertise tobacco. Unfortunately, such approaches get to innocent children and introduced to tobacco either directly or indirectly.
She pointed out that TCA 2007, is all about stopping the nature use of tobacco and nicotine products. It is the principal law governing tobacco control in Kenya. The Act prohibits parents from smoking near their children, in family cars, or sending children to buy cigarettes for them.
“TCA also acts on the pricing of cigarettes to make it difficult for children and youth to buy it. It protects families and children from exploitation through addiction by manufacturer’s trickeries and enticements,” Mrs. Gachoka said.
The tobacco law stops traders from selling single-stick cigarettes, shisha is banned, and any other products of addictive nature like tobacco are prohibited by the Ministry of Health through the Tobacco Control Act.
“So, our work as Tobacco Control Board is to regulate and control its use, demand, and supply in markets. That is why Kenya is a signatory to Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), Kenya signed on June 26, 2004,” Mrs. Gachoka emphasized.
These measures were drawn from the WHO as an international legal treaty that binds all countries as the Members States. The treaty is both international and local thus prohibiting smoking in public places such as in airplanes, public transport vehicles, restaurants, hotels, commercial banks, worshipping places, homes, or gatherings.
“Our aim of regulating tobacco products is not to punish traders or manufacturers but to protect children, youth and non-smokers from getting into smoking. It is difficult to get out or stop it once you are inside and the effects of smoking are extremely harmful,” Mrs. Gachoka clarified.
Defying Kenya’s Health Laws
Tobacco products use kills millions of people across the globe, so it is not wise to let companies and organizations making billions of money continue attracting youth to smoking in other diverse ways. For instance, cigarettes, nicotine pouch, electronics, shisha, and chewing or sniffing tobacco all are harmful regardless of the style or form used. There is no reduction in the harmful use of tobacco by other forms of usage.
The law on tobacco has been very effective, displacing roadside billboards tobacco adverts, media adverts, sponsoring sporting events, and such like. However, a few tobacco industries have blatantly defied Kenya’s Health Ministry Law on tobacco by interfering in price and tax policies.
Law enforcers have been dealing with tobacco companies and individuals defying laws with hefty penalties in the court of law. Again, due to weighty fines imposed on individual offenders, many get scared and hence adhere to the law.
Since the law is more on the protection of public and individual health, many people try to avoid getting into conflict with law enforcers and into a predicament of health issues.
The government spends a lot of money on ensuring and treating patients with tobacco-related infections such as respiratory diseases, cancers, and reproductive diseases and so victims share the burden.
