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Wako says it’s legal to smoke, City Hall warns: you just try
Cigarette smokers in a public smoking zone next to GPO in Nairobi. Photo/FILE
One year since the Tobacco Act banned advertising of tobacco products, the ministry of Public Health is yet to attain full compliance.
And last month, Attorney-General Amos Wako threw a spanner in the works when he lifted the ban imposed by various towns on smoking in the streets.
Lawyer Muriuki Mugambi, a smoker, was relieved that local authorities would finally revert to the law and allow Kenyans to smoke in the streets.
“All over the world, including developed nations, streets are smoking zones,” Mr Mugambi said.
He said the position adopted by local authorities had made smoking a punishable act, albeit one that is taxed.
The Attorney-General told the minister for Local Government through a letter dated September 19, 2008, that a public place did not include streets.
Mr Wako said the Act takes precedence over any by-laws that are subsidiary legislation. A “public place” means any indoor, enclosed or partially enclosed area which is open to the public or any part of the public or to which members of the public ordinarily have access and includes a workplace and a public conveyance, he said.
Public street
“This clearly excludes smoking outdoors, including in any public street, contrary to the provisions of the said by-laws,” the A-G said in his letter.
Nairobi lawyer Evans Monari told the Sunday Nation that the A-G had to interpret what a ‘‘public place’’ means because local authorities had declared streets ‘‘no- smoking zones.’’
He said that whereas the Tobacco Act was meant to protect non-smokers, local authorities, including Nairobi City Council, had embarked on a dangerous path to regulate personal conduct.
Mr Monari said “public place”, as it appears in the Act, must mean ‘‘many people’’. He said local authorities were getting their priorities wrong ‘‘as the main pollutants are the mountains of garbage and old cars spewing carbon monoxide in the streets.’’
But Nairobi Town Clerk John Gakuo told smokers to defy the city by-laws at their own peril. He said streets were public places.
As smokers battle with the interpretation of a “public place,” the government is involved in yet another battle with tobacco manufacturers over cigarette advertising.
While the ban on advertising of tobacco products seems to have been a success in Nairobi and other urban areas, Central Province has been left out.
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my message to city hall or mr Gakuo is this, " get your priorities right, fix potholes, street light,pave the side walks clean mountains of smelly rotten garbages,clean river nairobi and may be sweep the street once in a while before wasting money in paying compensation for wrongful arrests becoz you're trying to harrass kenyan for smoking,the law is clear, go to school man!
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The problems faced by African countries, is concerning themselves with trivial matters and detracting from other pressing national issues. The AG has spelt out the meaning of the Act, by-laws of the council can never supersede an Act of parliament. The ignorance of the Town Clerk John Gakuo clearly shows. AG’s office after issuing a statement to clarify the Act should simply Arrest and prosecute anyone who issues orders that contravene an Act of parliament. It is time for people in Public office to learn to abide by the Law.
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The smokers' behavioural aspect is what gets them into problems. If they could only mind the environment and non-smokers comfort, nobody would take them as the troublesome lot.They should not litter the streets with cigarette butts,avoid smoking when in a group of non-smokers be it in drinking places or homes.It only calls for their etiquette otherwise, most of them do not care and smoke mannerlessly wherever.
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