All eyes are on the Ministry of Health to initiate the Tobacco Control Fund after Kenya’s Supreme Court declared laws governing the sale and advertising of tobacco products are constitutional, reported the Standard Digital.

BAT had recently challenged the Tobacco Control Regulations but the petition was dismissed by the Supreme Court with Justice Njoki Ndung’u saying, “There is no way regulations can be made without considering the health of the people because that will be like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.” She also drew attention the fact that the impact of tobacco on human health is a worldwide debate that Kenya cannot avoid, according to the Standard Digital.
Kenya is a party to WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and domesticated the FCTC through the enactment of the Tobacco Control Act (TCA) in 2007. The Health Ministry has launched the National Tobacco Control Strategic Plan 2019 – 2023 which requests counties to align their tobacco control laws to the TCA. Director of Public Health Patrick Amoth said, “Counties that pass contrary laws will be operating outside the Act.”