August 20, 2008 - Back in August 2004, Gen. Kahinda Otafiire, then Water, Lands and Environment minister, just after signing the law banning smoking in public told police: " “Now that the law is here, if you find someone or people smoking in public places, just arrest them." But little has changed in 4-years, Ugandans continue to puff away wherever they please following failure by the responsible government agencies to implement the directive.
In Kampala, 16 per cent of the boys were said to have admitted smoking against 14 per cent of the girl population interviewed.
Some analysts have argued that because of the financial benefits the government reaps from tobacco trade, it is unlikely that they will come hard on public smokers. Uganda’s leading cigarette maker, BAT Uganda, was the sixth highest taxpayer in the 2006/07 financial year with Shs49.8 billion, accounting for nearly two per cent of the country’s total tax collections that year.
Reference: A ban going up in smoke by Kakaire A. Kirunda, DailyMonitor.co.ug, 8/19/2008.
Good paper, a little outdated, the work of Philip Karugaba Uganda lawyer and leading anti-tobacco activist.
Related news brief: British American Tobacco - 100 years in Africa..
WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Treaty.
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