Currently, manufacturers do not print any warnings on the packets. They claim the Tobacco Control Act does not compel them to do so because their products are not traditional cigarettes.
The meeting was called by Health PS Mary Muthoni at Bomas of Kenya on Friday.
She said regulating or banning nicotine pouches is consistent with Kenya’s obligations of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which requires parties to prevent and reduce nicotine addiction.
“There is urgent need to provide graphic health warnings due to the emerging novel nicotine and other tobacco products that would be responsive and implemented in the tobacco control programme to protect the health of Kenyans,” Muthoni said.
The move comes after Interior Security CS Kithure Kindiki announced the ban on the sale of shisha and tighter control on addictive products such as nicotine.
Vapes and nicotine pouches are made by cigarette manufacturers and are highly addictive.
They are banned in parts of Germany, in Belgium, the Netherlands, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritius, and Russia among other countries.
PS Muthoni said the proposed graphic warnings have already been developed and Friday’s meeting was to get reactions from stakeholders, which include the civil society.
Similar images for cigarettes show users sick with cancer, suffering amputations or already dead in coffins.
Nicotine pouches are small, tea bag-like sacks containing nicotine, cellulose, water, flavouring and sodium carbonate. They are placed between the lip and gum to release a nicotine hit.
Their popularity is growing among children and adolescents in Kenya, although the local tobacco industry claims that this population is not the target.
According to the WHO, nicotine is highly addictive and particularly harmful to pregnant women and adolescents. Exposure in children and adolescents can affect brain development, negatively impact learning and attention spans and potentially lead to anxiety disorders, research shows.
“Kids are being recruited and trapped at an early age to use e-cigarettes and may get hooked to nicotine," said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, in December last year. "I urge countries to implement strict measures to prevent uptake to protect their citizens, especially their children and young people.”
The civil society in Kenya commended the Ministry of Health and CS Kindiki saying Kenya must prevent the nicotine crisis before it gets out of hand.
The Kenya Tobacco Control Alliance chairman Joel Gitali called for a total ban on pouches, e-cigarettes and vapes.
“These products have no benefit at all in the human body. Their harms are slowly coming to light. We should not allow the tobacco industry to carry out dangerous experiments on Kenyan children,” he said.
The International Institute for Legislative Affairs, a Nairobi-based legal thinktank, said on top of warnings, the government must steeply increase taxes on nicotine products and alcohol.
Its CEO, Celine Awuor, said taxation is a proven effective measure for reducing consumption and associated harms to the users and society.
“The taxation regime in Kenya is ripe for reforms to fully utilise this tool for public health…As public health advocates, we commend this move and urge the government to move with speed in actualising this proposal,” she said.
On Wednesday, CS Kindiki said labelling and packaging of all tobacco products in the country must comply with the provisions of the Tobacco Control Act 2007 and the Tobacco Control Regulations 2014.
"Products that do not comply must be withdrawn from the market."
He said drugs and substances are a threat to public health across the country.
Kindiki said the use of illicit brews, drugs and substance abuse majorly among teenagers, the youth and even the elderly, is now not only a grave social concern but also a threat to the wellbeing and sustainable future of the country.
“Every household in Kenya today hosts and can relate to incidences of alcohol and drug abuse,” he said.
“These brews, drugs and substances are directly and negatively impacting Kenya's economic growth and development which is now ruining lives and livelihoods occasioning family disintegration,” he added.
He said the impact of these substances is spreading diseases including HIV and Aids.
“Brews that are illegal and drugs are now a major national security threat and a threat to public health across the country. Every Kenyan household hosts and can relate to this,” he said.
He invited all currently licensed manufacturers and distillers to a meeting to be held on Tuesday, March 12, 2024, at 10 am to discuss the regulations.
Kindiki said advertisement, promotion or distribution of flavoured tobacco, known as Shisha, is illegal with immediate effect.
The CS noted that establishments that will be found to sell the same will be shut down.
"The importation, manufacture, sale, use, advertisement, promotion or distribution of shisha is outlawed in the country, any establishment found in breach of this provision will be shut down with immediate effect," Kindiki said.
He directed County Security Teams to enforce the directives are adhered to, without fail.
