Jacaylbaro Posted July 14, 2007 12-July-2007: Nairobi has joined Nakuru and Mombasa in banning smoking in public. It follows similar bans in New York City and in clubs and pubs across England and Wales as part of international implementation of World Health Organisation guidelines. It is true that the 146 Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), of which Kenya is a signatory, last week agreed to adopt guidelines that stipulate 100 per cent smoke-free public places and workplaces. If this is to work, the public places must be defined, designated and communicated to all. The bylaws define public places as “any place or premises of common access to members of the public”. That is vague to say the least. We must not leave loopholes that can turn to a legal nightmare and we should have allowed discussions before implementing the ban. We also believe that the ban, although well meaning, has been pushed to the public casually and flimsily and leaves room to overzealous city council askaris to molest smokers and unsuspecting visitors. In other global cities, smokers had a grace period before the by-laws were slapped. Some buildings designated smoking places and rooftops where their working smokers congregate after they were pushed out of the streets. Hotels and pubs have smoking areas, away from the non-smoking places. The City Council has not told us whether these are also gone. It is not the first time that smoking in public places has been banned in Kenya. In 1979, former health minister, Arthur Magugu, banned smoking in public transport – it worked- and in all public places. The latter was a flop because public places were ill-defined as they are today. While WHO estimates that smoking kills five million people worldwide, the onus on the local authorities is not to criminalise smoking per se but to also designate places where smokers can puff without risks of arrest. It is time our policy makers put some legal framework on how to police the ban lest it turns to be a cash-cow for overzealous and corrupt City Hall askaris eager to enforce the ban in a city of 5 million residents. While our medical doctors have always voiced concern on passive smoking, we should come up with a formula for those who want to smoke as a matter of informed choice. With the same zeal can our city fathers, do something about other types of pollution that require emergency measures. go ahead Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
