Some of BAT products in Kenya. The company has been accused of using
unjustified practices to dilute plans to limit sales of its products in
Kenya. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Summary
- The Guardian says that in Kenya, BAT has succeeded in delaying regulations to restrict the promotion and sale of cigarettes for 15 years.
- In Uganda, the company is accused of targeting children in its attempts to gain new sales, a claim BAT strongly deny.
- Health experts say smoking still kills more than 7 million people globally every year world-wide.
- There are an estimated 77 million smokers in Africa
British American Tobacco (BAT) has again been accused of using unjustified practices to dilute plans to limit sales of its products in Kenya.
For the second time in two years an expose in the British newspaper the Guardian
says BAT, along with other multinational tobacco firms, “have
threatened governments in at least eight countries in Africa demanding
they axe or dilute the kind of protections that have saved millions of
lives in the West.”
According to the report, BAT, one
of the world’s leading cigarette manufacturers, is using the courts “to
try to block the Kenyan and Ugandan governments’ attempts to bring in
regulations to limit the harm caused by smoking.”
With
sales in Europe and the US plummeting, the tobacco companies are looking
to Africa which has a fast-growing young and increasingly prosperous
population to boost sales.
The Guardian
claims that in one of the undisclosed court document in Kenya, which it
has seen, BAT’s lawyers are demanding that the High Court “quash in its
entirety” a package of anti-smoking regulations and what it calls a
“capricious” tax plan.
The case is now before the Supreme Court after BAT Kenya lost in the High Court and the appeals court.
Targeting children
In
neighbouring Uganda, BAT has claimed that Kampala’s Tobacco Control Act
is “inconsistent with and in contravention of the constitution”.
The report also claims that the company is targeting children in its attempts to gain new sales, a claim BAT strongly deny.
The Guardian
report follows a BBC investigation in November 2015 which claimed that
BAT illegally paid politicians and civil servants in countries in East
Africa in order to boost sales.
The payments were revealed when a whistle-blower shared hundreds of secret documents.
At the time, BAT told the BBC: "The truth is that we do not and will not tolerate corruption, no matter where it takes place."
BAT Kenya operates with approximately 450 full-time employees in Kenya.
On its website it says that its operations have “always been guided by the highest standards of excellence.
It
adds that “we are committed to operating a sustainable and
environmentally friendly business whilst maintaining our position as
Kenya’s leading tobacco company.
“We know tobacco
products pose real and serious health risks and the only way to avoid
these risks is not to use them. But many adults choose to smoke, so our
top priority continues to be working towards reducing these risks and
making available a range of less risky tobacco and nicotine-based
alternatives.”
Delaying regulations
BAT
also denies it is opposed to all tobacco regulation, but says it
reserves the right to ask the courts to intervene where it believes
regulations may not comply with the law
The Guardian says in Kenya, BAT has succeeded in delaying regulations to restrict the promotion and sale of cigarettes for 15 years.
Professor
Peter Odhiambo, a former heart surgeon who is head of the government’s
Tobacco Control Board in Kenya, told the Guardian: “BAT has done as much
as they can to block us.”
Health experts say that
smoking still kills more than 7 million people globally every year
world-wide and there are an estimated 77 million smokers in Africa
The Guardian report pointed out that later this month, BAT is expected to become the world’s biggest listed tobacco firm.
This
is after completing its acquisition of the large US tobacco company
Reynolds in a $49bn deal, “and there are fears over the extent to which
big tobacco can financially outmuscle health ministries in poorer
nations.”
BAT is market leader in over 55 countries and
in 2016 the Group generated reported revenue of £14.75 billion and
adjusted profit of £5.48 billion.
At its annual meeting in March, chairman Richard Burrows was asked about the legal action in East Africa.
He
said tobacco was an industry that “should be regulated ... but we want
to see that regulation is serving the correct interests of the health
mission and human mission which should lie behind it”.
BAT says it is “simply not true that we oppose all tobacco regulation, particularly in developing countries”.
Different interpretations
Tobacco
should be appropriately regulated as a product that has risks to
health, it said, but “where there are different interpretations of
whether regulations comply with the law, we think it is entirely
reasonable to ask the courts to assist in resolving it”.
It was opposed to only a handful of the issues in Kenya’s regulations, not the entirety, it said in a statement.
The Guardian
says although most countries in Africa have signed the World Health
Organisation (WHO) treaty on tobacco control, none has yet fully
implemented the smoking restrictions it endorses.
Cloe
Franko, Senior International Organiser at Corporate Accountability
International, said: “In Kenya, as in other parts of the world, the
industry has resorted to frivolous litigation, aggressive interference
... to thwart, block, and delay lifesaving policies.
"BAT’s
actions are emblematic of a desperate industry grasping to maintain its
hold over countries and continue to peddle its deadly product.”
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