More youth getting hooked to smoking, tobacco agency warns
By Noah.Cheploen and Irene.Githinji, May 24, 2022
Tobacco Control Board (TBC) yesterday raised the red flag over the increase in cigarette smoking among the youth.
Speaking during a sensitisation workshop ahead of the World No-Tobacco Day on May 31, the board led by chair Nancy Gachoka said people as young as 21 were addicted to smoking.
While highlighting the 2017 ban on Shisha as one of its greatest achievements, the board said some unscrupulous nightclub owners were still selling the highly concentrated tobacco product.
“We would like to have a tobacco-free generation and this is not far-fetched because it has happened in other countries like New Zealand,” she said.
Gachoka said the ban on advertising tobacco products had helped control cigarette smoking in the country.
The board has embarked on a sensitisation campaign by visiting 25 counties in the next month.
TBC has also partnered with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) to sensitise children to the harmful effects of smoking.
Dorcas Kiptui, a TBC member representing the Ministry of Health, said that an estimated 2.5 million Kenyans, the majority being men, were hooked to tobacco products with 90 per cent of them smoking cigarettes.