Kenya ranked seventh greatest in tobacco use in Africa

Dennis Mwangangi reveals a bundle of tobacco rolls prepared for the market at Kilonzo Village in Kitui County on March 13, 2023. PHOTO | PIUS MAUNDU | NMG

Kenya has the seventh highest inhabitants of tobacco customers aged 15 years and above in Africa, a brand new report revealed by the World Well being Organisation (WHO) mentioned.

It mentioned there have been 3.1 million tobacco customers in Kenya as of the tip of 2022, representing about 5.7 p.c of the nationwide inhabitants with males dominating the behavior at 89 p.c.

Out of this, 2.7 million have been male customers whereas solely 0.4 million have been feminine shoppers. Tobacco people who smoke made up the most important portion of the product’s customers standing at 2.5 million or 81.9 p.c of all customers, with male people who smoke amounting to 2.4 million whereas females totalled 108,000.

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International locations that ranked above Kenya included South Africa with 8.4 million customers, Algeria with 6.7 million, the Democratic Republic of Congo (5.7 million), Madagascar (4.6 million), Nigeria (3.5 million) and Ethiopia (3.4 million). Within the area, Kenya led the pack trailed by Tanzania at 2.7 million customers whereas Uganda had 1.3 million.

Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Cape Verde, Eswatini and Guinea-Bissau had the least variety of customers on the continent at 10,000, 17,000, 45,000, 67,000, and 91,000 respectively.

WHO notes that for adolescents aged between 13 and 15 in Africa, the common prevalence price for tobacco smoking is six p.c and two p.c for girls and boys respectively.

On the worldwide scene, the most important numbers got here from the world’s most populated international locations led by China with 292.5 million tobacco customers, India (251.4 million), Indonesia (78.7 million) in addition to the US (63.2 million).

On prevalence developments, Kenya dropped from a excessive of 15.5 within the 12 months 2000 to a low of 9.7 as of 2020, with WHO projecting an extra drop to eight.6 by subsequent 12 months and a low of seven.7 by 2030.

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Kenya is on monitor to realize a 15-year relative discount in tobacco use of as much as 30 p.c by subsequent 12 months, in keeping with WHO.

“The downward pattern in tobacco use presently seen on the international stage is encouraging and displays the efforts being made in lots of international locations to implement tobacco management measures,” states WHO within the report.

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