Kenya prepares for plain packs
Critics contend that plain packaging has done little to reduce smoking rate in Australia.
Macabre images, such as those showing dead babies or a cigarette smoker with rotten teeth, are due to be included on cigarette packs sold in Kenya, according to a story in The Star quoting a government cabinet secretary.
British American Tobacco and other cigarette manufacturers last year went to court to try to stop the regulations, but the case went against them last month.
The health ministry has not announced when the warnings regulation will take effect, but it usually gives manufacturers six months to comply with new requirements.
“These regulations will assist the country to institute pictorial health warnings on tobacco products,” health cabinet secretary Cleopa Mailu was quoted as saying.
He was speaking during events to mark World No Tobacco Day in Nairobi on May 31.
Mailu said that if the graphic warnings were not effective, the ministry would recommend that cigarettes be sold in standardized packaging.
“A formal plan and timeline for implementation of plain packaging shall be developed in line with the national tobacco control program and priorities,” Mailu said in a speech read on his behalf.
Written cigarette warnings and a ban on advertising were adopted in 2008, but are said to have had only marginal success in Kenya.