[Intl-tobacco] Kenyan Cabinet Approves Anti-Tobacco Bill

[Robert Weissman]

Kenyan Cabinet Approves Anti-Tobacco Bill
Source: Xinhua Newswire, Monday, 12/4/00

 NAIROBI, December 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Kenya's Cabinet has at last approved a
stringent anti-tobacco bill to regulate the country's
multi-billion-shilling tobacco industry, the East African weekly reported
Monday.

The approval was granted on November 23 during a routine cabinet meeting
and will be published in the Kenya Gazette next January after the bill
will be taken to the parliament for debate.

The approval of the bill, the weekly said, is a major setback for Kenya's
tobacco industry which is dominated by British American Tobacco (BAT).

According to the draft bill, new regulations governing the industry will
ban the sale of single stick cigarettes, and henceforth, cigarettes will
be sold only in packets of 20 sticks.

The draft also seeks to outlaw all electronic advertising of cigarettes,
as well as the use of free promotional materials such as branded caps and
T-shirts in marketing of cigarettes.

Proponents of the bill contend that though profits for the industry may
plummet, regulations of the tobacco industry is essential if Kenya is to
avoid the high number of cigarette- associated deaths.