•In December 2017, the then Health Minister Cleopa Mailu banned shisha smoking in the country saying it had had encouraged the peddling of hard drugs.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
Health stakeholders now want the ban on shisha in Kenya re-evaluated to determine its effectiveness, more than three years later.
In December 2017, the then Health minister Cleopa Mailu banned shisha smoking in the country saying it had had encouraged the peddling of hard drugs.
Kenya became the fourth country in East Africa to prohibit shisha, after Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. But even after the ban, shisha is still widely sold in the country, especially at nightclubs, and is popular among socialites and sportspersons.
The tobacco control advocates now say a re-evaluation will help determine how effective the ban has been, discuss the challenges experienced during enforcement of the ban and expose those who are colluding with the clubs to sell it.
“Shisha is banned meaning it is not supposed to be available even in use but we have increasingly seen and heard that there are still some establishments that still sell shisha. That means that there is a collusion of people working together to blatantly break the law,” Celine Awuor said on Wednesday.
She is the CEO at the International Institute for Legislative Affairs.
“These products are imported so it means they must be passing through a certain entry border point. I think it is probably being perpetrated by corrupt individuals who are just out there to make money and just blatantly defy the laws,” she added.
Shisha is a glass-bottomed water pipe in which fruit-flavoured tobacco is covered with foil and roasted with charcoal.
The tobacco smoke passes through a water chamber and is inhaled deeply and slowly.
“It has been around three years since the ban on shisha. It is time as a country we did an evaluation of that ban to determine and understand how effective it is identify the loopholes, identify the individuals involved in breaking the law and then action taken against them as per the law.”
Experts warn that a single shisha session is the same as smoking hundreds of cigarettes.
According to the World Health Organisation, the volume of smoke inhaled in an hour-long shisha session is estimated to be the equivalent of smoking between 100 and 200 cigarettes.
Anthony Muthemba is the head of tobacco control unit in Nairobi county.
He says enforcement of the ban has been met with a lot of resistance and interference from the political bigwigs.
When arrests are made during crackdowns, it takes just a few hours before the culprits are released.
“Shisha consumption has renormalized and the major challenge we are having is that the establishments that are selling shisha are using their political connections to interfere with enforcement,” Muthemba said.
“You find that the people who have the responsibility to enforce these laws, some are either reluctant or not even enforcing at all. You only find that the only entity trying to enforce the shisha ban is the Nairobi Metropolitan Services,” he added.
People gather for shisha smoking sessions at lounges, cafes, bars and some prefer to do it at home in a cool environment, to enjoy it without any interference.
There is also e-Shisha, which is smoked below 45 degrees.
Shisha smoking has been linked to lung and oral cancers, heart disease and other serious illnesses.
Shisha smoking delivers about the same amount of nicotine as cigarette smoking does, possibly leading to tobacco dependence.
Shisha smoke poses dangers associated with secondhand smoke.
Shisha smoking by pregnant women can result in low birth weight babies. Young female smokers are often motivated more by the desire to stay thin or look cool than to avoid an illness in middle life.
The smoking pipes used in shisha bars and cafes may not be cleaned properly, risking the spread of infectious diseases, such as TB and hepatitis.