Kenya's new tobacco bill should protect young people without shutting adult smokers out of safer options.
Kenya is in the middle of its most important tobacco policy debate in more than a decade. The Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill, 2024, sponsored by Nominated Senator Catherine Muma, is before the National Assembly Health Committee, which held public participation hearings across the country in September 2026.
The Bill aims to bring newer products such as e-cigarettes (ENDS), nicotine pouches and heated tobacco products under a fuller regulatory framework. That goal is right. The question HRSK and many other stakeholders are asking is whether the Bill gets the details right.
What the Bill Proposes
Based on reporting from the committee hearings, the main proposals include:
- Giving the Cabinet Secretary for Health power to authorise the manufacture, import, distribution and sale of specified products
- Tighter rules on advertising and promotion, including on social media and digital platforms
- Making it an offence to sell any tobacco or nicotine product, including ENDS, to anyone under 18
- A ban on online sales of tobacco and nicotine products, with fines of up to Sh500,000, up to three years in prison, or both
- Reported proposals for a nicotine cap per pouch, child-resistant packaging, and sales buffers around premises that mainly serve children
Raising the minimum purchase age to 21 has also been discussed at the hearings and has drawn wide support.
The Core Issue: Not All Nicotine Products Carry the Same Risk
Nicotine is addictive, but it is not what makes smoking deadly. Most of the harm comes from burning tobacco and inhaling smoke, which contains thousands of chemicals, many of them toxic or carcinogenic. Products that deliver nicotine without combustion, such as pouches and e-cigarettes, expose users to far fewer of these toxicants.
During the Meru public participation session and in other submissions, harm reduction experts asked that the Bill clearly distinguish between combustible cigarettes and non-combustible products. Hospitality groups, including the Pubs, Entertainment and Restaurants Association of Kenya, made the same point. If a law treats a cigarette and a nicotine pouch identically, it sends a misleading message to adult smokers that switching offers no benefit.
"Regulation should follow risk. The most dangerous products deserve the strictest rules, and adults who smoke deserve accurate information about less harmful alternatives."
Protecting Young People Without Pushing Adults Back to Cigarettes
HRSK fully supports strong protections for children and adolescents. Age verification, marketing limits, and packaging that does not appeal to children are reasonable and necessary. Youth uptake of any nicotine product is a real concern and must be monitored closely.
But some measures need careful thought. A blanket online sales ban, for example, may be hard to enforce and could push trade into informal channels with no age checks at all. Traders and youth groups at the hearings warned that heavy penalties and licensing costs could favour illicit sellers over compliant businesses. The aim should be rules that are strict, practical and enforceable.
What HRSK Recommends
- A clear legal distinction between combustible and non-combustible nicotine products, with requirements proportionate to risk
- Strong, enforceable age verification at every point of sale, including online sales by licensed sellers
- Product standards on nicotine content, ingredients and packaging, set through transparent, evidence-based regulations
- Accurate health communication that lets adult smokers understand relative risk
- Investment in cessation services alongside any new product rules, so smokers have every pathway to quit
- Regular review of the law as new evidence on youth use and adult switching emerges
Conclusion
Kenya has an opportunity to write a modern tobacco law that protects young people and also helps the millions of adults who still smoke. Getting the balance right will save more lives than treating every nicotine product the same. HRSK urges the Health Committee to weigh the public submissions carefully and to put relative risk at the centre of its recommendations.
Sources
- The Star — Proposed nicotine crackdown sparks pushback from businesses, youth (26 Sep 2026)
- KBC — Harm reduction experts poke holes in Tobacco Bill, call for amendments
- Tobacco 21 — Kenya mulls raising tobacco use age limit to 21
- Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction — Kenya country profile
