Kenyan Tobacco Controllers Urge To Ignore British American Tobacco’s Requirement To Sell Nicotine Bags

Kenyan tobacco control lobbyists called on the Minister of Health Mutahi Kagwe to reject British American Tobacco’s request to allow the sale of nicotine bags.

In September last year, Kagwe announced that it was illegal to register nicotine pouches (commonly known as Lyft).

Kagwe said in a letter from the Drug Administration Committee that the issuance of a license for nicotine pouches violated the provisions of Article 25 of the CAP 224 Medicine and Poisons Act.

Kagwe pointed out that even though the Pharmacy Commission has registered it as a drug, the nicotine pouch does not meet the description in the bill. He added that the way the product was sold to the public violated the law.

In a letter to the Cabinet Secretary, British American Tobacco hopes to reduce the area of warnings packaged to 10%. At present, the warning area on the front and back of the packaging is 30% and 50% respectively.

The company pointed out in the letter that the resumption of factory operations and the sale of nicotine pouches “depends on the provision of appropriate textual health warnings for the products”. He also added that “size, text and other health information, types of pictures or pictograms can be adjusted as appropriate.”

This is the content specified in Section 21(2) of the Schedule to the Tobacco Control Act in order to gain insight into the risks associated with tobacco use.