Kenya: Malakisi Rejects Ban On Tobacco

Source from:  The Star  11/06/2013

Tobacco farmers in Western Kenya yesterday said that they are opposed to the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. FCTC is a treaty by the 56th World Health Assembly on 21 May 2003, and came into force on 27 February 2005.

Through the convention, WHO wants to impose restrictions on tobacco farming to curtail its consumption. Speaking to the Star at Bukhokholo Chiefs camp in Malakisi, the farmers said the move by WHO to ask them to stop growing the crop is a personal affront to their efforts to improve their livelihoods.

Besides imposing a tax of 70 per cent on tobacco products, FCTC proposed banning minimum support prices and leaf auctions and regulating the season in which tobacco can be grown. It seeks to reduce areas allocated for tobacco farming, banning technical support for tobacco farmers and dismantling all bodies connecting growing with the government.

Farmers said the move is meant to deter them from growing tobacco. WHO has cited numerous diseases brought about by use of tobacco products as the reason why they want tobacco banned.

Tobacco farmer David Were said the government collected Sh14 billion in taxes last year while more than 20,000 farmers were contracted by cigarette manufacturers. Health experts have cited cancer among other diseases as resulting from using tobacco products. Enditem