Lobby in push to bloc high sugar, junk foods marketers to children

A health rights lobby has launched pressure campaign to have advertisers of junk food and high sugar snacks targeting children punished to protect them from non-communicable diseases.

The Kenya Legal & Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS (KELIN) says it was time the Kenyan government is pushed to enforce its 2010 commitment to the World Health Organization to restrict junk food and non-alcoholic beverages marketing to children.

This comes as experts worry that childhood obesity is a growing concern in the country, with the 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey reporting that three per cent of children under five are overweight.

The KDHS also showed that 13 per cent of girls aged 15–19 are overweight or obese compared to two per cent of boys.

The experts argue this is driven by a shift towards unhealthy diets, a decrease in physical activity and the increased availability of processed, high-calorie foods, creating a "triple burden of malnutrition" alongside stunting and wasting.

Based on the trend, KELIN says most marketers have taken advantage of gullibility of children to entice them to indulge in high sugar content and junk snacks that make them develop heart diseases, obesity, blood pressure, diabetes and mental health related complications.

“Children are particularly vulnerable because they often lack the maturity to understand the persuasive intent of marketing,” it says.

In 2010, WHO member states, including Kenya, made a political commitment and endorsed a set of recommendations calling on governments to adopt policies restricting the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children.

The techniques used to expose the children to the foods include advertising, sponsorship, product placement, sales promotion, cross-promotions using celebrities or mascots, packaging and labelling, point-of-purchase displays, digital marketing and viral campaigns.

Given that the effectiveness of marketing is a function of both exposure and power, it says, the overall policy objective should be to reduce children’s exposure to and the persuasive power of marketing unhealthy foods.

KELIN’s pressure campaign is “by advocating for stronger policy and legal frameworks that protect children from harmful food marketing practices.”

The lobby says it seeks to safeguard children’s rights to health and nutrition, hold corporations accountable for harmful marketing practices, and align Kenya’s policies with international standards.

“This campaign calls on policymakers, civil society, educators, parents and the media to unite in demanding clear regulations restricting marketing of unhealthy foods to children, effective enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance and promotion of healthy, affordable and accessible diets for all children.”

Childhood overweight and obesity are rising at alarming rates worldwide and Kenya is not left out.

According to the Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates by UNICEF, WHO and the World Bank, there are nearly 41 million overweight children globally, an increase of 11 million since 2000.

UNICEF warned that if current trends continued, the number of overweight or obese infants and young children globally would reach 70 million by 2025.

As of 2020, the global prevalence of overweight among children under five years of age had not improved, increasing slightly from 5.3 per cent in 2012 to 5.6 per cent, or 38.3 million children, in 2019.

A major UN research this year showed one in 10 children aged five to 19, about 188 million globally are now living with obesity, compared to 9.2 per cent who are underweight.

INSTANT ANALYSIS

Marketing of unhealthy foods has been clearly associated with poor diets and increased NCDs among children. Foods high in saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, free sugars, or salt influence children’s preferences, purchase requests and consumption patterns.