On 25th July 2015, Parliament passed the Tobacco Control Act, 2015 and it was assent by the President on the 19th September 2015.
The main objective of the act is to protect the present and future generations from the devastating health, social, economic, and environmental consequences of tobacco use and exposure.
The law prohibits smoking Shisha, burns flavoured tobacco and the sale of single sticks.
However, ever since it was passed it has not been fully implemented. According to Parament Secretary of Ministry of Health Dr. Diana Atwine, they have been in court battles with some cigarette dealers, who want the act scrapped.
“We want to remind all the companies that are making cigarettes to follow the law because if they don’t the laws will catch up with them,”she said.
After, passing the act, the official presented Shs1.8bn before the Parliament to facilitate its implementation across the country. However, it’s now five years since the law was passed and little has been done to reduce the use of tobacco in the country due to inadequate funding.
According to Dr. Hasfa Lukwata, the Tobacco Control Focal Person at the ministry of health, due to the lack of funding, the ministry has not been able to fully implement the law.
“We have a secretariat but it cannot do a lot since we do not have money to enable it to do its work,” Lukwata said.
As per the Tobacco control programme at the ministry, the Shs1.8bn was to be used to open up a secretariat, write the Tobacco Control regulation, forming and nationalizing the national tobacco control committee, disseminate the tobacco control act and regulations. It was also supposed to help with enforcement of the law for instance by enabling impounding tobacco-related substances.
But due to lack of funding, they have always depended on donor funding which at times comes with strings that affect certain aspects of the law.
In addition to this, they cannot hire the necessary staff to help with making regulations to guide the implementation of the law.
Lukwata asserts that quitting smoking for some Ugandans might be hard but such people can be helped through treatment or counselling
“Some people are unable to stop on their own and need medication to assist them. However, we cannot provide drugs in our health facilities due to a lack of funds. Even specialized drug and alcohol counsellors are not there. These things can only be found at private facilities or Butabiika.”
According to the last 2013 ministry of health survey, over 1.5million people use tobacco in Uganda.
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