Essays on Tobacco in Kenya

Abstract

Despite Kenya being a signatory to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and passing of the Kenya Tobacco Control Act (KTCA) of 2007 as a commitment to reducing consumption and production of tobacco in Kenya, tobacco is becoming important in household and individual decision making. This is seen by the growth in per capita consumption over time and increase in the number of farmers farming tobacco in Kenya. This thesis sought to understand household and individuals’ interactions with tobacco at both production and consumption levels to inform policy makers on effective interventions to minimize the impact of the tobacco problem in Kenya. The thesis is organized into three essays. Essay one assesses the determinants of tobacco use in Kenya, where maginal effects were used to estimate the determinants of tobacco use. This essay concludes that tobacco use in Kenya is influenced by many factors, such as age of the smoker, marital status, gender, county of residence, access to media, and ethnicity. The second essay assesses the causal impact of tobacco expenditure on consumption of other goods in a household and concludes that tobacco use reduces consumption of many household goods. Finally, the third essay examines the cost and returns of tobacco farming in Kenya and suggests that tobacco farmers generally experience small margins per acre, with contract farmers operating at a loss. The results from these essays will help guide policy makers in allocating the country’s resources to reduce tobacco use in accordance with legislation and commitments by the country. Some of the policy implications drawn from the thesis include the development of a multi-sectoral public policy team tasked with identifying initiatives for tobacco control. Another policy recommendation is to make tobacco control integral in poverty alleviation strategies by the government because results suggest that tobacco crowds out consumption of basic commodities such as food, education and housing by the poor. The Ministry of Agriculture should create legal mechanisms to minimize exploitation of farmers by multinationals through contracts, while county governments should increase efforts to build capacity of farmers on how to compute farming profit.