Kenya: WHO Calls Tobacco Firms ''Cockroaches'' After Failed MPs Retreat

Source from:  The Star 03/23/2015

World Health Organisation (WHO) has ridiculed plans by cigarette manufacturers in Kenya to fly some local politicians to a beach resort for a "sensitisation retreat".

The cigarette makers are fighting stiff anti-smoking regulations that the ministry of health has proposed.

Head of WHO's department for prevention of non-communicable diseases Dr Douglas William Bettcher said the tobacco firms were behaving like cockroaches.

"They like to work in the dark. They hire scientists and front groups to work for them. They have also tried to infiltrate the WHO for decades," he said yesterday at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) in Abu Dhabi.

The tobacco firms said they wanted to sensitise the Kenyan Members of Parliament on the proposed regulations to strengthen the 2007 Tobacco Control Act.

Chairperson of the parliamentary committee on health Racheal Nyamai said on Wednesday they have rejected the retreat offer. The politicians had also been promised attractive extraneous allowances.

WHO director General Dr Margaret Chan said interference by the tobacco industry must be stopped.

He said the firms must not be involved when health professionals draft anti-smoking regulations to stop cancer and cardiovascular diseases among others.

"One thing I know, never trust tobacco industry. They fund political parties and individual politicians to work for them," she said.

The two spoke at the ongoing WCTOH meeting in Abu Dhabi attended by government representatives and anti-tobacco advocates across the world. Enditem