The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) has pushed back against sections of the Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill, 2024 currently before the Senate, citing risks of a higher cost of doing business, a conflicting regulatory framework, and growth in illicit trade.
The manufacturers’ lobby said that the regulation should focus on controlling tobacco use and enabling informed consumer decision-making rather than adopting outright prohibitions.
‘Industry proposes a balance between public health objectives and government duty to foster investments,’ KAM Chief Executive Officer Tobias Alando said in a submission to the Senate on the Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill 2024.
‘Experience across multiple countries shows that overly restrictive regulatory measures tend to fuel the growth of illicit trade, a challenge which cuts across various sectors of the economy,’ he added in the submissions dated April 24, 2026.
BAT Kenya is the country’s main manufacturer of cigarettes, which have come under increasingly stricter regulations around the world due to their negative impact on the health of smokers.
The company, which has a long-term goal to transition to less harmful nicotine pouches and other alternative products, has decried the growth of illicit cigarette trade even as compliant players are saddled with more regulations.
The manufacturers’ lobby rejected a proposal in the Bill to introduce mandatory licensing by county governments for all dealers in tobacco and nicotine products, including manufacturers, importers, distributors, and retailers. It termed the proposal duplicative of the role already played by the Health Ministry and likely to increase the cost of doing business and fuel illicit trade.
‘These proposals run against the Government of Kenya’s commitment to facilitate the ease of doing business, and risk creating significant disruption for compliant enterprises. This provision introduces unnecessary regulatory duplication, higher compliance costs, and administrative inefficiencies,’ KAM said in its submission.
‘Further, layering multiple licensing requirements at both national and county levels is likely to result in inconsistent enforcement, regulatory uncertainty and barriers to formal trade, while inadvertently incentivising illicit trade growth, which is already estimated to account for nearly half of the market,’ it added, urging that the provision is deleted from the Bill.
KAM also criticised a proposal in the Bill to completely ban flavours in all tobacco and nicotine products, cautioning that this could be counterproductive in a market already characterised by high levels of illicit trade.
‘Illicit operators currently supply tobacco and nicotine products (including those with child-appealing flavours) with little vulnerability to enforcement action. Such a ban would disproportionately affect compliant businesses while leaving the illicit market largely intact. In practice, this would amount to de facto elimination of the legal category, displacing lawful operators and investment while fully expanding the unregulated market,’ the manufacturers warned.