NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 24 – Defence Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has called for intensified operations to crack down on Shisha dens in night clubs across the country.
Duale insisted that the ban on Shisha must be enforced without laxity to ensure the culpable proprietors and users are brought to book under the law.
“Shisha addicts must face the law, as it is illegal in Kenya since 2017. Law enforcement agents must raid shisha dens,” he said.
On Saturday, twenty-five people were arrested in Kilimani at a Shisha joint with 117 Shisha bongs being confiscated.
The Friday night operation raid was led by the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Anthony Omerikwa in Yejoka Gardens.25
In 2017, Kenya implemented a comprehensive ban on shisha, including the use, import, manufacture, sale, offer of sale, advertising, promotion, distribution and encouraging or facilitating its use.
“What I’d like to ask and tell proprietors and operators is that the law is very clear. We know what is legal what is legal what is illegal. In 2017 the government implemented a ban on shisha and the sale was banned,” Omerikwa said.
The NACADA CEO mentioned that given the slow proliferation of Shisha use and sale in nightclubs in the country robust investigations will be undertaken to curtail the trend.
“The multi agency will continue the investigation to get to the bottom of it. We are trying to look whether this place is licensed, whether they have a valid license,”
“The public health also come here to see if the premises are in good shape. So the investigations have just begun,”noted Omerikwa.
Kenya became the fourth country in East Africa to prohibit shisha, after Uganda (ineffectively), Tanzania and Rwanda. But even after the ban, shisha is still widely sold in the country, especially at nightclubs.
Shisha is a glass-bottomed water pipe in which fruit-flavoured tobacco is covered with foil and roasted with charcoal. The tobacco smoke passes through a water chamber and is inhaled deeply and slowly.
