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Tobacco Control and Health Promotion Alliance (TCHPA) has urged that Kenya needs homegrown solutions to help Kenyans quit smoking.
This comes hours after some researchers stated that Kenya needs to adopt the Sweden method in making tobacco method to make tobacco users quit usage.
Rais Angazia Ufisadi Katika Wizara ya Afya-Gitali
“We need homegrown solutions to our unique problems. You cannot look at what’s happening in Sweden and you can lift it and fit it into our situation,” Gitali stated.
According to TCHPA Chair Joel Gitali, the rest of the European Union Countries would have adopted the Sweden method if it would be the best.
He stated that addiction in itself is a serious disease and a long-term solution to the entire problem of nicotine addiction is to be got by realizing that the objective might be slow and costly, but worth it.
World No Tobacco Day, Lets Conserve the environment -Joel Gitali
“Why haven’t the rest of the EU countries done the same? We can’t praise Sweden and benchmark there simply because the entire population is moving to Heat and not Burn tobacco and nicotine addiction,” he added.
Gitali said the tobacco industry knows that its future is threatened and they are trying to be innovative by the investment in alternatives.
“They do not want to lose their customers. This is why they ensure that, instead of smokers just quitting, and nonsmokers not starting to smoke, there are alternatives to turn to. As we have stated many times, the industry wants to retain its clientele as it recruits more using all tactics possible,” he stated.
World No Tobacco Day, Lets Conserve the environment -Joel Gitali
In the Netherlands, which is also a strong EU member, the clarion call and vision of the Tobacco Control fraternity is, “a nicotine addiction-free generation “.
Many Countries have taken measures to protect their young people by either having tough regulations such as a ban on all flavors as is in the Netherlands or a total ban on such products as is in Uganda.
Kenya still has a long way to deal with the products which threaten and has turned youth into a generation of nicotine addicts.
According to a recent report, researchers had suggested to the Parliament of Kenya to follow Sweden’s example and facilitate adult smokers’ transition to less harmful alternatives saying it could save thousands of lives in our country.
They stated that Sweden is set to become the first country in the world to achieve ‘smoke-free’ status when its tobacco smoking prevalence rate falls below 5% in the next few months.