The Mt Kenya Times 
Chuka Igambang’ombe MP Patrick Munene takes tobacco farmers through the provisions of the Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill, 2024, during a public participation exercise at Kaanwa Market yesterday.
Farmers in Chuka Igambang’ombe expressed support for the Tobacco Control Bill after MPs explained its provisions at a public forum in Mariani Ward.
By Dennis Mutua
Tobacco farmers in Chuka Igambang’ombe Constituency, Tharaka Nithi County, yesterday voiced support for proposed amendments to the Tobacco Control Act after legislators explained the Bill’s provisions at a public participation forum held at Kaanwa Market in Mariani Ward.
The forum was convened as part of public hearings by the National Assembly Departmental Committee on Health, which is collecting views from across the country before reporting the Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill, 2024, to the House.
Chuka Igambang’ombe MP Patrick Munene, vice-chairperson of the Health Committee, said he moved to engage his constituents directly after spotting the Bill in Parliament and recognising that many residents — particularly in Mariani Ward — depend on tobacco farming for their livelihoods.
“If I did not let you know that there is such a Bill, could you have known?” Munene asked the gathering, adding that the Senate should have provided similar opportunities for farmer consultation before transmitting the Bill to the National Assembly.
Munene urged tobacco farmers to form and register a cooperative society to give them a formal channel for raising concerns and engaging authorities — similar to structures that exist in the tea and coffee sectors. He committed to carrying farmers’ views to Parliament and pushing for changes that address their concerns when the Bill comes up for consideration.
He also dismissed claims that he opposed tobacco farming, accusing political opponents of spreading misinformation that he wanted the crop banned.
“If we don’t fight fabricated tobacco products, it will end up rendering real tobacco farmers irrelevant, the way cotton farming went,” Munene warned.
Nyeri Town MP Duncan Maina Mathenge, a member of the Health Committee, told the forum that the public had been misinformed. The government, he stressed, had no plans to ban tobacco farming. The proposed amendments instead target new tobacco and nicotine products, several of which are manufactured using synthetic substances.
Mathenge said the committee had already received views on issues including the licensing of tobacco products, while some participants at earlier hearings had also called for shisha to be outlawed.
The clarification appeared to reassure many farmers present. One farmer, identified as Mwenda, said he supported the amendments after hearing the provisions explained and believed the changes would benefit growers.
However, another farmer, Waithaka, expressed anxiety over whether established tobacco products could be affected. “I have been farming BAT since 2008 and it saddens me to hear that BAT could be shut, whereas it is the one we have been using to pay school fees for our children,” he said.
A third farmer asked Munene to help tobacco growers access safer pesticides, citing health concerns over chemicals currently used in production. Farmer Henry raised the prospect that the amendments could introduce new packaging requirements affecting how tobacco is sold.
Tharaka Nithi County National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse coordinator Agnes Kanyinge said the agency supports the proposed amendments but wants changes to the composition of the Tobacco Control Advisory Committee, including the involvement of NACADA’s chief executive.
Kanyinge raised alarm over synthetic nicotine, saying children as young as six were consuming the substances in schools, resulting in restlessness, anxiety and violent behaviour. “Synthetic nicotine has very high levels of nicotine and we want it looked at,” she said.
She also called for tighter regulation of shisha, saying its use had become widespread around Chuka and Tharaka universities. Kanyinge said women had surpassed men in shisha consumption and raised concerns about its effects on unborn children, citing premature births and babies born with deformities among women who use it.
NACADA further proposed that the Bill’s 100-metre buffer zone around restricted areas be expanded to 300 metres, arguing this would bring it in line with provisions under liquor-control legislation.
The Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill, 2024, is a Senate Bill sponsored by Nominated Senator Catherine Mumma. Published in 2024, it seeks to amend the Tobacco Control Act to strengthen regulation of tobacco and nicotine products, including electronic cigarettes, nicotine pouches and other electronic nicotine delivery systems. The Senate passed the Bill before transmitting it to the National Assembly, where it received its first reading on March 31, 2026, and was subsequently referred to the Health Committee.
Closing the forum, Munene assured farmers that the government had no intention of shutting down tobacco farming and urged them to continue planting. He said Parliament’s attention should next turn to fruit-based products, questioning the use of chemicals in drinks marketed as fruit beverages and linking such industrial products to rising cancer cases in the country.
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