Why high prices, jail, fines won’t deter smokers

Why high prices, jail, fines won’t deter smokers.

The government is to hit smokers with a steep price hike to the disappointment of protesting manufacturers but a victory for civil society.

In renewed war on tobacco, both local manufacturers and civil society have strongly lobbied the government over price increases contained in the Finance Bill 2019.

Manufacturers have argued the proposed 21 per cent price increase will neither reduce smoking rates nor increase government revenue but instead will encourage illicit trade.

“Don’t listen to them, you must tax the industry heavily to discourage consumption and reduce tobacco related cancers,” says David Makumi, the chairman of Kenyan Network of Cancer Organisations.

So far President Uhuru Kenyatta seems comfortable with the proposed higher tobacco taxation, having only raised issues with capping of banks’ interest rates in the Bill.

The activists have argued that high prices are a most effective strategy of discouraging tobacco consumption.

But data from the Ministry of Health shows neither price increases nor tough smoking penalties have made significant reduction in tobacco use in Kenya. The Tobacco Control Act 2007 prescribes a Sh50,000 fine for smokers in public places or six months in jail or both.

“I can assure you nobody is being fined or jailed with law enforcers preferring to take bribes from offenders,” Makumi says.

While inaugurating the Tobacco Control Board in May, Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki said the fight against tobacco has only made marginal gains.

Between 2012 and 2019, she said there has only been a one per cent decline in the use of tobacco, with 2.2 million Kenyans still using the products.

But even these marginal gains have been challenged in a study published by her ministry last year.

The study in the journal BMC Public Health and overseen by Dr Gladwell Gathecha, a senior official at the ministry, reported increased use of smokeless tobacco since the introduction of tough control rules.

Also, the National Authority for the Campaign against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) has recorded an increase in use of tobacco among people aged over 35, from 11 per cent in 2012 to 13 per cent in 2017.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates there will be about 1.1 billion smokers by 2025 globally, which is just about the same number today. This smokes-cape, WHO says, will be characterised with declines in developed countries but smoking increases particularly in Africa.

But even as local lobbyists and regulators are stuck on traditional tobacco issues, manufactures have dramatically seized the initiative in a manner likely to dominate the future of smoking.

“We’ve made a dramatic decision. We are building our future on smoke-free products that are a much better choice than cigarette smoking. Indeed, our vision is that these products will one day replace cigarettes,” says Philip Morris International (PMI), one of the world’s leading tobacco giants.

“Our aspiration is to reduce smoking almost four times faster than the target set by the WHO,” says PMI in a web posting.

Company data shows PMI has put more than $6 billion (Sh600 billion) in researching and developing non-smoke products, which include e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn alternatives.

Heating and not burning tobacco, industry studies says, can reduce the emission of harmful chemicals by up to 95 per cent compared to conventional cigarettes. The tobacco giant has also called for dialogue with public health authorities, regulators and anti-tobacco civil groups to create a “smoke-free future”.

“The emotional rhetoric against the industry – which ignores scientific facts – is not helping the world’s one billion-plus adult smokers. It’s time to have a more open-minded debate to make a smoke-free future a reality,” says PMI in a post.

Closer home, the British American Tobacco (BAT) in July announced plans to introduce “safer” tobacco products in the Kenyan market, including nicotine paunches.

“We call upon Kenyan government not to license these products that are increasingly complex threats to public health,” responded Kenya Tobacco Control Alliance.