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By OMBOKI MONAYO
Nairobi, Kenya – The High Court’s decision to lift Kenya’s seven-year shisha ban has opened another chapter in the pitched battle between public health advocates and hospitality traders, with both sides warning of dire consequences for the nation.
Justice Bahati Mwamuye ruled the 2017 prohibition unlawful on July 28, 2026, citing the government’s failure to regularise the underlying rules within a legally required timeframe. The ruling has created a regulatory vacuum that health advocates warn could reverse years of progress in the fight against tobacco-related diseases.
The stakes are immense. According to Ministry of Health data, healthcare costs attributed to tobacco-related illnesses amount to approximately $396 million (Ksh 45 billion) annually – a burden that tobacco control advocates say will only grow if shisha use resurges.
“A single shisha session delivers smoke equivalent to 100 to 200 cigarettes,” warned Joel Gitali, National Coordinator of the Kenya Tobacco and Health Control Alliance (KETCA). “The smoke contains carbon monoxide and other toxic agents known to increase risks for smoking-related cancers, heart disease, and lung disease.”
Gitali described the court ruling as a major setback. “The ban was pronounced and left hanging. There was a ban without consequences of violation,” he said, expressing frustration at the enforcement gaps that have plagued the prohibition since its inception.
Thomas Lindi, KETCA’s national coordinator, highlighted the long-term health consequences: “Regular smoking of shisha may lead to cancer of the lungs, mouth, stomach, and oesophagus, on top of health conditions like impaired pulmonary function, heart disease, and reduced fertility.”
Health experts point to WHO estimates showing an hour-long shisha session involves inhaling the equivalent of 100 to 200 cigarettes. The original 2017 ban was also justified by findings that 79.2% of tested shisha samples were spiked with narcotics.
“The Ministry of Health is fully behind the Tobacco Control Bill. We cannot allow Kenyans to keep dying from cancers linked to long-term use of harmful tobacco products,” declared Health CS Aden Duale during Senate deliberations, while revealing that powerful individuals had attempted to pressure the ministry into allowing harmful products into the country.
However, hospitality traders have mounted aggressive resistance, warning that the ban – and the broader Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill, 2024 – threatens to devastate the sector.
“Bans and excessive restrictions will only drive consumers to criminals, fuel unemployment, and deepen poverty,” warned Boniface Gachoka, Secretary General of the Bar, Hotels and Liquor Traders Association (BAHLITA). “Kenya’s illicit cigarette trade already controls 45 percent of the market, and this Bill will make a bad situation worse.”
Gachoka raised the alarm over job losses: “Some Kenyans may have no option but to move to court if the Senate does not involve them in making laws that concern them.” He noted that BAHLITA represents 54,000 members employing hundreds of thousands of Kenyans.
Traders argue that banning flavoured nicotine products will immediately open doors to a flood of illicit goods. “Legitimate businesses like ours will lose out as consumers will go for the cheaper, illicit products. Before you know it, entire businesses will close and the government will lose billions of shillings which would have otherwise been collected as taxes,” Gachoka added.
BAHLITA Treasurer Josiah Wanyika urged lawmakers to focus on enforcing existing laws, including the ban on tobacco sales to individuals under 18, rather than introducing new regulatory measures.
“We ask the Senate to allow the government to strictly enforce existing laws on tobacco regulation, which already cover the key issues which the current bill seeks to regulate.”
The association has petitioned Parliament to conduct comprehensive nationwide public participation, arguing that holding stakeholder engagements largely in Nairobi sidelines traders from counties like Mombasa, Nakuru, and Uasin Gishu.
“When traders, the very people whose businesses will be affected by this law, are excluded from the process, that is an affront to a right guaranteed to every Kenyan under the Constitution,” Gachoka asserted.
As Parliament prepares for a final vote on the Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill following the July recess, the debate crystallises around a fundamental question: Can Kenya protect public health without sacrificing livelihoods and fuelling illicit trade?
With healthcare costs straining the system and thousands of jobs hanging in the balance, the outcome will shape the nation’s public health and economic landscape for years to come.
