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"speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this Bill, which is, of course, very important. Listening to other hon. Members' contributions, I must admit that I have been thoroughly educated about certain things that I did not know about tobacco. I want to quote basically three sources. Firstly, the object of this Bill is very clear. Its purpose is basically just to have a comprehensive legal framework to regulate the manufacturing, selling, labelling, advertising and promotion of tobacco products in order to protect the health of Kenyans from the hazards of using such products. Secondly, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control states in the preamble as follows:- \"Parties to this convention, recognising that the spread of the tobacco epidemic is a global problem with serious consequences to public health, call for the widest possible international compression and participation of all countries in an effective, appropriate and comprehensive international response\". Thirdly, the Minister for Health conducted a global youth tobacco survey in Kenya. I have the survey's report here. At the beginning, the report states as follows:- \"The global youth tobacco survey is timely as tobacco is contributing to several deaths worldwide. Recent trends indicate that the age of tobacco initiation is becoming younger and younger. Most people begin using tobacco before the age of 18 years. The health of smokers is affected even in the early stages and, therefore, precious lives are lost before the prime time\". Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are dealing with an issue which is just not local. It is an international or a global issue. The tobacco epidemic is global and, therefore, needs serious national response. The trend worldwide is that younger and younger people take to smoking particularly because of the massive advertisement by the tobacco manufacturing companies. Tobacco is addictive just like other drugs and I can speak from personal experience. Once a upon a time, I was in remand in Kamiti Maximum Prison. I saw certain behaviour among the prisoners that even if I had been a smoker, I would have stopped smoking thereafter. Smuggling of tobacco into prison is a very serious offence, but it is done all the same. When prisoners go to the courts, their relatives bring cigarettes to them. They are then wrapped in silicon paper and then 3768 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 16, 2006 pushed through the anus into the rectum. They are then smuggled into prison. Somebody who manages to take cigarettes into prison becomes a lord because he exchanges one stick of cigarette with three pieces of meat. Prisoners are entitled to three pieces of meat a week. This means that if you are given one stick of cigarette, you forego your pieces of meat for the whole of that week, and, of course, you will be very happy. It is forbidden to smoke in prison. The only place that prisoners find opportunity to smoke is in the toilets. In the toilets, human waste is usually heaped in buckets. In the presence of buckets filled with human waste, prisoners risk smoking. They smoke until the stick is finished; until it burns their fingers. I know that smoking is a hazardous affair. Cigarette smoking is addictive and, therefore, we must take some preventive measures to ensure that our children do not get addicted to cigarette smoking."
}