Honourable Ministers………,       

Permanent Secretaries,

Members of Tobacco Control Board,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen!

 

 

We have come a long way! We have even a longer road ahead!

 

Over the years, within the past approximately one and a half decades, there have been as many themes annually for the 'World No-Tobacco Day'! There are still many themes to come. Each one of the past occasions and the future ones had and will have a bearing for tobacco control all over the world. That Kenya's law is so new, so young, one must appreciate the magnitude of the job at hand. But a

country's law is its prerogative and basis of dispensing justice to its citizens,

Particularly after it has been duly enacted. The normal practice is that no law can, per se, be unjust if it has been duly debated before it is enacted. The other normal observation is that in the modern world, the ever-shrinking global village, there must be room for international collaboration. It becomes even easier through international treaties.

 

For tobacco control, we have the 'Framework Convention on Tobacco Control' (FCTC) of the World Health Organization. Kenya does enjoy a key pre-eminence as a founder in the drafting of this very first international treaty on health.

 

That notwithstanding, Kenya now has to lay very firm foundation for effective tobacco control. For some countries, that kind of move is easier said than done. A

lot of good laws remain in legal books when the practice negates their essential provisions. Many people may be tempted to colour it with a lot of lip service. Progressive leadership in a progressive country will always be conscious of what is good for the citizens. That is why we shall forever be grateful to our leaders for enacting the tobacco control law as "An Act of Parliament ... " in this country ­namely " ... to control the production, manufacture, sale, labeling, advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products ... ".

That is where gender comes in.

 

We, in the 'Tobacco Control Board' will strive to ensure that the word gender is interpreted and understood to mean male and female, both young and old. The notion that the word 'gender' came with activism on women's rights is wrong and misplaced. If women and girl-children have suffered certain historical injustices, then what must be done is to level the action ground and ensure that our perennial problems of 'IGNORANCE, DISEASE AND POVERTY' are addressed in real terms, including elimination of deceptive claims and propaganda.

 

For the fighters of the infamous slave trade and slavery, the claim was that slave labour was the heart-beat for the prosperity of America. And there are quite a few examples where injustices and oppressions were disguised and packaged like blessings. Many have been dismantled. The scourge of the modern world is trade by smooth-talking but utterly callous multinational corporations who have the audacity to claim that they are the back-bones of economies of third-world countries. The tobacco industry is one outstanding among such corporations!

 

Targeting the youth all the time, they make nonsense of such basic national requisites like early childhood education when children of both genders should be at school, when the brains of the children are still developing and require very clean environment promote their growth and development.

 

It was demonstrated decades ago that with every cigarette smoked the mental capacity of the smoker is reduced by 10%. Unfortunately, there is also a factor of (empty) excitement to a variable extent, may be as much as 15% or more. With reduced brain capacity and negative excitement, smokers end up being excited and excitable fools - mothers, fathers, girls and boys. When one takes stock of all that for national development, especially for the young nations, one is faced with