By  Anne-Marie  Schryer-Roy

Government  officials  in  major  towns  across  Kenya  are  officially  declaring  their municipalities  to  be  Smokefree.  Following  enforcement  trainings  organized  by  the  Institute  for  Legislative  Affairs  (ILA),  in  collaboration  with  the  Kenyan  Ministry  of  Public  Health  and  Sanitation,  officials  in  three  towns  have  indeed  committed  to  enforcing  the  Smokefree  provisions  of  the  Kenyan  Tobacco  Control  Act  2007  (TCA).  It  is  hoped  that  others  will  follow  suit  shortly.

In  Eldoret,  Rift  Valley  province,  the  Mayor  announced  that  the  ban  on  smoking  in  public  places  would  come  into  effect  on  July  27,  2009.  In  Mombasa,  Coast  province,  the  Municipal  Council  gave  the  general  

British  American  Tobacco,  the  world's  second-biggest  cigarette  maker,  reported  signs  global  economies  were  starting  to  improve,  as  it  met  forecasts  with  a  19  percent  rise  in  2009  earnings  on  Thursday.

The  London-based  group,  which  makes  Kent,  Dunhill,  Lucky  Strike  and  Pall  Mall  cigarettes,  gained  a  boost  from  price  rises,  acquisitions,  and  the  weak  pound  which  offset  falling  underlying  volumes  and  downtrading  to  cheaper  cigarettes.

"From  a  global  viewpoint,  generally  the  worst  is  over  and  we  would  expect  recovery  to  come  first  in  our  developing  markets,"  said  company  spokesman  Michael  Prideaux,  adding  that  these  emerging  markets  account  for  around  two-thirds  of  group  sales.

He  

A  Deputy  Minister  for  Health,  Hon.  Dr.  Oakley  Quaye-Kumah,  on  Thursday  25,  2010,  inaugurated  a  nine-member  Local  Planning  Committee  of  the  Second  Working  Group  on  Article  17  and  18  of  the  World  Health  Organisation  (WHO)  Framework  Convention  on  Tobacco  Control.

He  explained  that  Article  17  and  18  of  the  Framework  Convention  deal  with  provision  of  support  of  economically  viable  alternative  activities  and  protection  of  the  environment  and  the  health  of  persons.

The  Committee  has  Dr.  Akwasi  Osei  as  Chairman  with  Mrs.  Edith  Wellington,  Mrs.  Marian  A.  Tackie,  Miss  Sophia  Twum-Barima,  Mrs.  Pearl  Akiwumi-Siriboe,  Representatives  of  Ministries  of  Food  and  Agriculture  and  Foreign  

The  National  Council  Against  Smoking  (NCAS)  has  urged  finance  minister  Pravin  Gordhan  to  review  tobacco  tax  rates  in  South  Africa. Gordhan  announced  that  cigarette  tax  would  increase  by  R1,24  per  pack.

The  group  accused  government  of  sticking  to  a  policy  which  kept  tobacco  taxes  low  in  favour  of  tobacco  companies  at  the  detriment  of  public  health  and  government  revenues.

The  group  said  South  Africa's  tax  rates  on  tobacco  were  among  the  lowest  in  the  world.  "Since  1997  government  set  the  cigarette  tax  rate  at  50%  of  retail  price  and  gradually  increased  it  to  52%  in  2002,"  the  NCAS  said  in  a  statement.  It  

Malawi  is  annually  losing  tens  of  thousands  of  financial  resources  through  uncollected  revenue  due  to  rampant  tobacco  smuggling.  Tobacco  is  Malawi's  largest  foreign  exchange  earner,  accounting  for  about  75%  of  that  country's  total  annual  earnings.

Reports  from  Malawi  have  indicated  that  investigations  by  the  Malawi  Police  Service  have  revealed  that  Malawi  loses  millions  of  dollars  in  export  and  tax  revenue  through  smuggled  tobacco  to  neighbouring  countries  with  more  than  15%  of  the  leaf  on  the  Zambian  market  coming  from  Malawi  and  eventually  being  imported  back  into  Malawi  as  Zambian  or  Mozambican  tobacco.

Deputy  Commissioner  and  Head  of  Community  Policing  Services,  George  Kainja,  

Experts  have  described  tobacco  crop  as  a  crop  of  death.  This  is  considering  that  tobacco  farmers  all  over  Africa  are  impoverished  and  the  farmland  which  the  plant  grows  turns  infertile  to  other  crops.

This  position  was  maintained  by  Rachel  Kitonyo,  Chairperson  of  Africa  Tobacco  Control  Alliance,  ATCA,  during  a  meeting  of  Africa  Tobacco  Control  Regional  Initiative,  ATCRI  in  Uganda.  Kitonyo  says  Tobacco  cultivation  in  Africa  constitute  a  big  economic  and  health  care  challenge.

She  argued  that  the  claim  by  Tobacco  Industries  that  it  provides  employment  opportunity  for  Africa  is  a  false  impression.  “In  Kenya,  the  Tobacco  Companies  claim  that  they  employ  over  

A  body  of  Non  Governmental  Organization  under  the  aegis  of  Africa  Tobacco  Control  Regional  Initiative  (ATCRI)  is  making  a  strong  demand  on  the  government  of  Africa  to  seek  ways  of  controlling  tobacco  use  in  the  continent.  This  cautionary  warning  is  a  result  of  increase  in  deaths  resulting  from  smoking  complications.

No  fewer  than  5.5  million  deaths,  resulting  from  complications  from  smoking  occur  in  2009  alone,  a  World  Health  Organizations´  statistics  reveals.  A  large  chunk  of  the  death  was  recorded  in  Africa.  This  has  prompted  action  from  civil  society  groups  concerned  with  Tobacco  Control  issues  in  Africa  to  try  and  reverse  the  

AllAfrica.com  -  Washington,  USA  -  (June  30th,  2009). National  Co-ordinator  of  the  group,  Mrs.  Abimbola  Kolade,  who  disclosed  this  in  Lagos  at  a  function  organised  to  mark  this  year's  "World  No  Tobacco  Day"

 

AllAfrica.com -  Washington,  USA  -  (June  30th,  2009). Eventually,  all  the  efforts  at  reducing  the  nicotine  level  in  tobacco  products  have  paid  off  with  the  passage  of  this  bill.  According  to  Gregg  Haifley.

 

The  Christian  Science  Monitor  -  (November  24th,  2008). JOHANNESBURG,  South  Africa  -  One  hundred  sixty  nations,  many  of  them  in  the  developing  world,  have  vowed  to  stand  up  to  the  tobacco  industry  and  its  efforts  to  water  down  antitobacco  laws.  Bolstered  by  a  2005  global  treaty,  sponsored  by  the  World  Health  Organization  –  the  Framework  Convention  for  Tobacco  Control  –  more  than  100  nations  have  created  new  laws  to  ban  public  smoking,  ban  tobacco  advertising,  particularly  those  targeting  youths,  and  ban  partnerships  between  tobacco  companies  and  government.  This  weekend,  at  a  meeting  in  Durban,  South  Africa,  countries  took  that  treaty  a