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"id": 234596,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/234596/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 210,
"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
"slug": "moses-wetangula"
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"content": " Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to second this Bill. When Dr. Kibunguchy asked me to second this Bill, one of my immediate reactions was that, I have a feeling that the Bill does not go far enough in dealing with smoking and the problems that smoking causes. I say so because the statistics that we all know about smoking are frightening. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to start by congratulating hon. Sungu, who brought a Motion that triggered the chain reaction that accelerated the Ministry of Health to bring this Bill. Equally, I want to congratulate the Ministry for taking the lead in the war against smoking. You and I know that this Bill is just among other things that try to domesticate the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. We subscribe to WHO as a country and as a member of the world community. Some of the cardinal clauses in that Convention are very clear. The Convention says in part:- \"---recognizing that the spread of the tobacco epidemic is a global problem with serious consequences for public health that calls for widest possible international co-operation and the participation of all countries in an effective, appropriate and comprehensive international response---\" So, it is an international problem; it is not a Kenyan problem. The Convention goes on to say:- \"Seriously concerned in the worldwide consumption and production of cigarettes and other tobacco products, particularly in developing countries as well as about the burden this places on families, on the poor and on the national health systems---\" You can also see that tobacco consumption is a Third World problem affecting families, the poor and the national health systems. It also says:- \"Recognizing also that cigarettes and some other products containing tobacco are highly engineered so as to create and maintain dependency and that many of the compounds they contain and the smoke they produce are pharmacologically active, toxic, mutagenic, carcinogenic, and that tobacco dependence is separately classified as a disorder in major international classifications of diseases---\" This is very critical. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you can see that those who manufacture tobacco, knowingly, wilfully and deliberately engineer the contents of tobacco to create dependence. This is November 15, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3719 very dangerous! It further says:- \"Acknowledging that there is clear scientific evidence that pre-natal exposure to tobacco smoke causes adverse health and developmental conditions for children---\" So, by continuing to recklessly expose young and pregnant mothers to tobacco smoke, we are endangering the lives of unborn children. This is also very dangerous! It also says:- \"Deeply concerned about the high levels of smoking and other forms of tobacco consumption by indigenous people---\" The Convention is very detailed and it has many things. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you know about the big case in Los Angeles recently where a tobacco company, it is either Aspen or JR-something--- Mr. Weya could be knowing it. It is a big company. This company was taken to court and pleaded guilty to deliberately engineering the contents of cigarettes to create addiction in young people so that once they start smoking, they will never stop. This was a boardroom conspiracy by the manufacturers. They must have asked themselves: \"How do we get dependency to sustain this terrible trade?\" These are merchants of death! So, they put excessive amounts of nicotine and other substances to make sure that, once you start smoking, you become addicted and you live by the smoke. This has been acknowledged by the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. So, by bringing this Bill here, we are trying to domesticate an international convention which was crafted, designed and passed in Geneva by, among others, the Government of Kenya. The issues I have read in part from the Convention are things we all know. We have seen in our televisions how a cloud blows on your television screen, then a well dressed man arrives, sometimes he is called Jokur . This scene depicts that when you smoke, you are Jokur . What will stop our children from imagining that they are Jokur ? We also see in our television a scene of a young man swaggering on the streets, hand-in-hand with a beautiful girl, showing that if you smoke, you will attract a beautiful girl. We have seen many such misleading advertisements. We have had many advertisements of cigarettes. These have to be brought under strict control, if not to an end. This is because children in formative years are very vulnerable. The moment we expose them through the electronic and print media, that smoking makes one a tough guy, they will believe that, that is the way of life. They will also believe that, that is how to be a responsible person in future, yet, at the end of the day, we know that they are courting death. Nothing costs the Third World economies more than the cost of treatment of active, direct and involuntary smokers. Billions of shillings are expended by Third World governments, Kenya included, to treat people with respiratory complications and all manner of diseases, including cancer. These are avoidable. In fact, the passage and enforcement of this Bill will most likely increase our Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) kitty, because the money that we are pumping into treating people who fall involuntarily ill because of the merchants of death, will be put to more productive use. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, my constituency has a tobacco-growing section. One of my four divisions grows tobacco. I look forward to the day when, in enforcing and implementing the provisions of this Convention of the World Health Organization (WHO), a fund will be set up to give the local farmers alternative means of livelihood, so that they can grow crops that bring them reasonable income. They will be able to grow crops that will not subject them to constant coughing and sneezing. In addition, they will be able to grow a crop, whose very handling, will not be a health hazard. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Bill has not mentioned one of the dangers of tobacco-growing; that is, the destruction of trees. Everywhere the tobacco is grown, it is cured 3720 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 15, 2006 through smoke from firewood. To get this firewood, we have to cut down trees to light the kilns to dry the tobacco. As a result of this, rain patterns have changed. Once in a while we see a token intervention by those who deal in tobacco, which is never enough. This Bill has come too late in the day, but it is a very important. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Bill also provides for penalties for those who encourage reckless advertising and sell cigarettes to young persons. As we all know - and I think this is scientific - there is no young person in this country or anywhere who will just wake up one morning and smoke ganja, commonly called marijuana. We call it enjaka in my language. I do not know what you call it in your language. To graduate to ganja, one must first taste a cigarette. It is those cigarettes that lead to graduated bad behaviour. They make our children end up going for what is commonly called in slang, \"the joint.\" We hear our young sons saying: \"I tasted a joint.\" Before you taste the \"joint\", you start with a cigarette. When we control this cigarette smoking, we are anticipating the arrest of a worse situation. Those who expose young persons to cigarettes must be severely punished. The provision of a fine of Kshs500,000 is not enough. What is Kshs500,000 to ASPEN or BAT? Nothing! A much stiffer penalty should be set, especially, if a manufacturing company engineers false and fraudulent advertisement that causes children to think that to smoke will make them somebody. The fine must be in millions. Recently, an American court in Los Angeles fined a cigarette manufacturer over US$90 billion for continuously exposing young persons to cigarette smoking by putting in substances, including nicotine, that would make everybody who tastes a cigarette become addictive to it. When you fine a villager from Shinyalu, a sum of Kshs200, it is very painful. But when you fine a cigarette manufacturer Kshs10 million, it is pocket change. The punishment must reflect the status of the offender. I think this is something that we need to look at. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Bill sets out a regulatory board that will be dealing with issues of tobacco products. But I want to remind the Assistant Minister that he omitted to provide for the chairman or chairperson of that board. The Bill is silent on this. I do not know who will chair that board. I want to urge him, at Committee Stage, to bring in the provision of a chairman or chairperson, and the qualifications. The Bill also leaves out a very critical component on the regulation of tobacco production, that is, the environmentalists. I would wish that the Assistant Minister increases the number of persons in Clause 5 who will sit in this board, to include either a representative of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, or somebody from the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA). This is because tobacco production is a danger to our trees. The board needs to be advised by the NEMA. Also, sometimes when we leave provisions as fluid as simply saying, \"one representative of the business community in Kenya to be nominated by the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce,\" we need some clarity. This is because the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce might send in tobacco lobbyists to advance their cause from the board. If we are looking for control, we must look for probity as well. I think the Committee responsible for public health in this House should assist the Ministry in enriching the quality of persons who will sit in this board. Otherwise, we might end up with a board full of smokers and pro-smoking characters, who will eventually reverse the whole content of the Bill. If we have to fight smoking, we must be clear as to who we want to put in this board. I am sure my good friend, the Assistant Minister, is hearing this. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, some of the temptations that lead to our young persons falling into traps, are the uncontrolled kiosks around schools and learning institutions. I think we should go head-on and eliminate those kiosks that are deliberately placed outside the gates of schools by dubious fellows who constantly give our children free sweets and cigarettes. Who pays for these cigarettes? In America, it has been proven that cigarette manufacturers give free November 15, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3721 cigarettes to retailers to give them to children, to create addiction. This, in turn, will enhance their business tomorrow. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, most of these companies spend millions of shillings, if not billions, on advertisement and promotion. How do they promote their products? They give hon. Sambu a free cigarette knowing that once he finishes it, he will need a second one and a third one. The next day he will want a packet of cigarettes. We need to eliminate kiosks that sell cigarettes outside our learning institutions. If they have to do so, there should be stringent regulations governing their licences, which must require that they should never sell cigarettes outside learning institutions where young persons can be exposed to cigarette smoking. This is absolutely critical. The Bill, of course, is very clear on this issue. It states that anybody who sells cigarettes to a young person knowing that person is young will be fined heavily. The fine should even be heavier. The Bill authorises promotion of cigarettes under Clause 20. If it was withim my authority, I would delete this clause altogether. I do not think cigarettes need any promotion, given what they do to our people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Clause 21 talks about promotion of sporting events. How the hell on earth would cigarette companies promote athletes without encouraging them to smoke, or cigarette companies put money on footballers without encouraging them to smoke? The World Health Organisation has discouraged this. Even at the risk of sporting going down, we must avoid going to cigarette manufacturers to sponsor marathon events. You know that a runner who smokes cannot run even two kilometres. So, why do you want to go to them to sponsor marathon events? We should ban it altogether. Let them keep their money. We can have better business dealings with soft drink manufacturing companies like Coca Cola bottlers, manufacturers of things like biscuits and bread, which can sponsor sports instead of legitimising merchants of death, and allowing them to come to us with their money bags. When cigarette manufacturing companies are allowed to sponsor sporting events, they distribute packets of cigarettes to those watching the event. Some of them are the same young people whom we want to protect."
}