The National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse is carrying out sustained crackdowns on shisha dens. This move is beginning to bear fruit as, interestingly, a good number of users did not even know that the substance was illegal in the first place.
For the longest time actually, shisha vending and smoking have become commonplace to the extent that they have mutated into a crowd puller in nightclubs in major cities across the country.
Celebrities and other influencers have not been left behind as their social media timelines are filled with promotional material of themselves, and their acquaintances, puffing away on the illegal shisha.
Young minds in tertiary learning institutions have not been spared as they too flock to clubs and smoke the substance as they while the night away.
Shisha smoking, also called narghile, water pipe, hookah or hubble bubble smoking, originated from the Middle East and certain areas of Asia. It is a way of smoking tobacco through a bowl with a hose or tube joined on.
The tube has a mouthpiece that the smoker uses to breathe in the smoke. However, the smoking pipes used in shisha bars may not be cleaned properly, risking the spread of infectious diseases, such as TB and hepatitis.
In 2017, Kenya implemented a comprehensive ban on shisha, including the use, import, manufacture, sale, offer of sale, advertising, promotion, distribution and encouraging or facilitating its use.
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 musicians.
In 2014, before the ban was put in place, the Ministry of Health in conjunction with Nacada, barred 19 shisha flavours found to contain bhang, heroin and cocaine. In the activities preceding the ban, 79.2 per cent of the shisha samples collected tested positive for heroin.
The latest national survey on the status of alcohol and drug abuse in the country released in May 2023 revealed that the age of initiation for tobacco is six years. According to the survey, one in every 12 Kenyans aged between 15 and 65 were using tobacco, representing a significant over 2 million people.
It further showed that one in every six males aged between 15 and 65 and one in every 50 females are currently using tobacco. Central has the highest prevalence of current use of tobacco followed by the Coast and Eastern.
According to the University of Miami’s Department of Public Health Sciences, hookah smoking originated in ancient Persia, Iran and India around 500 years ago. Spreading through Middle Eastern and Asian countries, hookah smoking has become embedded in the cultures of these areas and has become a prominent component in social gatherings.
According to Kenyan law, contravention of the shisha ban attracts a fine not exceeding Sh50,000, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or both. This bold step saw a surge in anti-smoking campaigns by civil societies steered by the Kenya Tobacco Control Alliance, which pushed for immediate implementation of the ban.
There are some frightening facts linked to the smoking of the pipe, among them being that shisha smoke contains high levels of chemicals and poisons, including carbon monoxide and tar. Several of these chemicals are known to cause mouth and lung cancers, heart disease, respiratory and other diseases.
The sustained crackdown by Nacada is one of the most effective strategies to stamp out this flagrant abuse of the substance and wanton breaking of the law. It sends a strong signal to unscrupulous traders running illegal businesses disguised as entertainment, to the detriment of the youth.
Besides the crackdown, which is part of a drug supply suppression strategy, the authority also conducts public education and awareness activities, which is part of the demand reduction strategy. The two approaches supplement each other in the campaign against alcohol and drug abuse.
