Executive Summary Report

This report describes the findings of ITC Kenya Surveys conducted in 2012 (Wave 1) and 2018 (Wave 2) among approximately 1,500 tobacco users and 600 non-tobacco users. As a Party to the FCTC since 2004, Kenya is obligated to implement strong national policies to reduce tobacco use, including large pictorial health warnings, bans on smoking in public places, bans on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship, and increases in tobacco taxes and prices.

Kenya is making progress towards combatting smoking through strong tobacco control policies such as picture-based health warnings, but there remain significant challenges, according to the ITC Kenya National Report that was released by the Kenya Ministry of Health on May 31, 2021 — World No Tobacco Day.

The report identifies the need for the Government of Kenya to strengthen their tobacco control efforts in several areas:

1. Design and implement more public education campaigns to reduce misperceptions of the harms of tobacco products and decrease the social acceptability of tobacco use.
2. Introduce a ban on menthol cigarettes to help reduce tobacco consumption and initiation, particularly among youth.
3. Enhance access to cessation services to support tobacco users who want to quit, including increased training of physicians and health care providers.
4. Increase the impact of the current health warnings by implementing the full set of all 15 rotating PHWs on both smoked and smokeless tobacco packages, and increasing the size of health warnings to at least 50% of both sides of the pack.
5. Consider moving forward with plain packaging legislation along with larger PHWs as part of a comprehensive strategy to further increase the impact of health warnings and reduce the appeal of tobacco, which has been successfully implemented in Australia and many other countries.
6. Strengthen the current smoke-free law by making all public places and workplaces 100% smoke-free without exceptions, accompanied by a rigorous enforcement effort to ensure compliance.
7. Strengthen enforcement of the ban on TAPS to decrease exposure to tobacco marketing in the entertainment media and in retail environments even further.
8. Simplify the tobacco tax structure by applying a uniform specific tax rate so that all tobacco products are taxed equally to discourage switching between brands or products, and implement regular tax increases which translate to price increases at the retail level in order to make tobacco products less affordable over time.
9. Strengthen enforcement of the ban on the sale of cigarettes by single sticks.

Media:

May 31, 2021 | World No Tobacco day: 12% of smokeless tobacco users reported noticing health warning "often" on smokeless tobacco according to International Tobacco Control Report | The Star Kenya.

May 31, 2021 | World No Tobacco Day: Govt calls for larger warnings on products. Kenya Broadcasting Corporation.

May 31, 2021 | Report: 220,000 children use tobacco each day. The Standard.

May 31, 2021 | Tobacco Control Study Reports 72% Awareness of Warning Messages Among Smokers. Capital News Kenya.

May 31, 2021 | Kenya urged to ban menthol cigarettes to help reduce tobacco consumption. CGTN Africa.

May 31, 2021 | Only 12% of smokeless tobacco users notice health warnings "often" - report. The Star Kenya.

May 31, 2021 | World No Tobacco Day - Thomas Lindi-National Coordinator (KETCA). KUTV Kenya.

June 1, 2021 | World No Tobacco Day: calls for Kenya to ban menthol cigarettes. Metropol TV.

June 1, 2021 | Kenya Joins the World in Celebrating World No Tobacco Day. Citizen Weekly.

June 2, 2021 | Ban Menthol Cigarettes, Save 29,000 Smokers, Survey Reveals. Kenya News Agency.