Reintroduction of nicotine pouches poses a health crisis for the Kenyan youth, says KETCA

Reintroduction
The reintroduction of nicotine pouches to the Kenyan market after a rebrand is a major public health concern especially to the youth, Kenya Tobacco Control Alliance (KETCA) warns.
According to the world health organization (WHO) nicotine pouches cause heart and lung health complications, poor brain development in adolescents, the oral nicotine pouches are linked to increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, nausea, mouth and gum irritation, nicotine addiction among others.
At an event held by KETCA, Samwel Ochieng CEO of consumer information network(CIN) spoke on the dangers of this rebrand, “These nicotine pouches are being presented as a safe alternative for traditional tobacco products, and a big percentage of our youths are attracted to these products due to their flavoring and sleek designs.”
The pouches were first introduced to the Kenyan market in 2019 by British American Tobacco as an alternative for traditional tobacco.
They were later withdrawn from the market by the Ministry of Health after extensive scrutiny showed that they were highly addictive and irregularly registered for sale as a pharmaceutical product with the former cabinet secretary for Health, Mutahi Kagwe telling the BAT its pouches can only be sold by adhering to the Tobacco Control Act.
The Tobacco Control Act 2007 (CAP 245A) and The Tobacco Control regulations 2014, require that all tobacco products, including nicotine pouches, are required to have warning messages in both English and Kiswahili languages on their packaging.
For smokeless tobacco products, these warning messages must be presented in both text and picture form, covering a minimum of 30 percent of the front cover and 50 percent of the back. However, Velo-the nicotine pouch that was formerly known as LYFT is yet to comply with this requirement.
A documentary produced by KETCA shows the alarming ease of access to these products even by minors,
“The rampant sale of non-compliant nicotine pouches in Kenya coupled with inadequate enforcement measures has created an alarming situation where tobacco companies can unlawfully target young people with ease,” the documentary mentioned in part.
The documentary named ‘A Ban that never was” went on further saying, “the Tobacco Control Act of 2007 which is meant to regulate products like oral nicotine pouches explicitly prohibits access to Tobacco by minors, however these pouches are being sold loosely in areas easily accessible to minors and are being offered in small sachets. This blatant disregard for the law is making these products easily available to school going children leading to a surge in addiction.”
Speaking on the branding and marketing strategy of the nicotine pouches Simon Ochieng says, “we are in a crisis ,the tobacco industry has targeted the new generation of young generation due to the reduction of conventional tobacco smokers/users, there are a lot of emerging tobacco products are smokeless and designed to appeal to the young people, these things are engineered to target youths from flavors and designs masquerading as daily objects like pens that parents can miss this is the done with the purpose of getting the young people addicted.”
Nicotine pouches come in flavors like polar mint, topic breeze, berry frost-mellow and all come in different nicotine strengths, they are advertised online where they are sold for as little as 20 Kenya shillings.
KETCO,CIN, NATIONAL PARENTS ASSOCIATION(NPA), Kenya Scouts Association and other youth groups are advocating for stricter enforcement of the law.
KETCO through their policy brief states, “the government must display unwavering boldness and take a resolute stand against the manipulative tactics of the Tobacco industry, which has led to the unlawful reintroduction of nicotine pouches in the market.”