Every year, roughly 12,000 Kenyans lose their lives to tobacco-related illness — a number
that should alarm every policymaker in this country. Beyond the death toll, tobacco use drives
up rates of cancer and non-communicable diseases, quietly draining both families and the
healthcare system.
What makes this worse is that the market isn’t standing still. Vapes, e-cigarettes, nicotine
pouches — these aren’t niche products anymore. The industry has gotten very good at
making them look harmless: bright packaging, sweet flavours, social media ads. And it’s
working. Among university students alone, nicotine pouch use sits at 5.8%. Young people are
picking up these habits partly because the products feel low-risk and, frankly, because they’re
cheap and easy to get online.
Taxation is one of the most straightforward tools we have to push back on this. Higher prices
reduce consumption — that’s well established. Yet Kenya’s current excise taxes on cigarettes
are nowhere near where they need to be. The WHO recommends that excise duty make up at
least 70% of a cigarette’s retail price. We’re sitting below 40%. That gap matters.
The newer nicotine products are taxed even less, despite functioning as an entry point into
smoking for many young users.
If the government is serious about protecting the next generation, raising taxes on tobacco
and nicotine products isn’t optional — it’s overdue. Story by Maurice Judica