Reprieve to smokers as ministry backtracks on council by-laws

By Peter Opiyo

Smokers would be trooping back to the town streets in glee, clutching and puffing away their treasured stick confidently.

Incessant threats by smokers to sue the local authorities have forced it to backtrack on council by-laws.

Following such threats the Ministry of Local Government issued a public notice that councils have been acting in contravention of the recently introduced Tobacco Control Act.

The by-laws locked out smokers from the streets.

The ministry was forced to eat humble pie after the Attorney General, Amos Wako, agreed that the councils had overstepped their mandates by barring smokers from puffing on the streets.

Legal advice

Local Government minister, Musalia Mudavadi, said the threats forced them to seek legal advice from the AG.

"We realised the councils were overstepping their mandate and the notice issued was to set the record straight," said Mudavadi.

The City Council of Nairobi, Nakuru and Mombasa Municipal councils in July last year, invoked by-laws to disallow smoking in public places before the Tobacco control Act came to effect, in July this year.

According to the by-laws, a street is a public place while in the Tobacco Control Act, a street is not classified as a public place.

By-laws

Given that the Tobacco Control Act has a national outlook, it overrides the various by-laws.

This means smokers would not risk arrest on the streets.

In the three towns the proscription affected all public places, restaurants, streets and offices. The City Council slapped a Sh3,000 fine or six months imprisonment, for the offence.

A new development akin to Alcoblow (alcohol content detecting device) case could have followed should the smokers have opted for the courts.

Some players in 2006 moved to court to stop the use of Alcoblow in checking drunken driving, but Parliament last year passed an amendment to the Traffic Act, giving a green light for its introduction.

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