A section of Kisumu County hospitality traders has opposed a proposal to raise the minimum age of smoking to 21 years saying the move is impractical.
Speaking on the sidelines of a public participation exercise on the Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill in Kisumu on Saturday, the traders questioned the motive of the proposal, adding that it was unclear how such a law would be implemented.
The proposal to raise the minimum age limit of nicotine and tobacco consumers arose at a stakeholders’ engagement forum in Nairobi that was hosted by the National Assembly Committee on Health on the Bill earlier in the week where sections of stakeholders expressed the proposal.
Commenting on the proposal then, Committee Chairperson Dr James Nyikal said there seemed to be concurrence on the issue.
“There has been a lot of concurrence among the stakeholders on issues such as increasing the age of consent to purchase nicotine products from 18 to 21. We are happy as a committee because this will give us less work when we start considering the submissions,” he said.
But speaking in Kisumu yesterday, Dan Ouma, Chairperson of The Pubs, Entertainment and Restaurants Association of Kenya (PERAK) in Kisumu challenged the practicality of the proposal.
“They are trying to raise the smoking age limit from 18 years to 21 years. We are here to tell them that it is not possible because the implementation of the proposal is unclear. Does it mean that consumers now must produce ID cards before purchasing these products? Do we need to have people issued with new IDs? It is not clear how they intend to do this,” he said.
The traders further took issue with the Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill’s proposal of restricting sale of tobacco and nicotine products to not within 100 meters radius of places with children.
According to the traders, the existing tobacco laws have put in place measures for the establishment of smoking zones which cater for this issue.
The traders also faulted the Bill’s business licensing proposal saying a requirement for tobacco-trading-specific licenses from counties will only increase cost of doing business as they already pay for single business permits.
The National Assembly Committee on Health concluded public participation on the Bill on Saturday in Kisumu and Nanyuki and now retreats to compile its report which will include the submissions by the various stakeholders across the country.
