The mover of the motion, Hon. Chris Baryomunsi
The well attended public hearing that was called by the legislators tabling the bill attracted participants that included tobacco farmers, national, regional and Global Tobacco Control advocates, members of the Civil Society, WHO and the Ministry of Health. The Tobacco Industry was represented by British American Tobacco ( BAT), Leaf Tobacco and Master Mind. Over twenty legislators attended the session including those from the tobacco growing districts.
The mover of the motion, Hon. Chris Baryomunsi, expeditiously presented the content of the Bill and stressed that this is a zero and working draft adding that the Tobacco Industry had been invited to make an input into the Bill before it is tabled in Parliament. Hon. Baryomunsi said that although it is a Private member’s bill, he has been working closely with the Ministry of Health, the Centre for Tobacco Control in Africa (CTCA) and the Civil Society like the Uganda National Tobacco Control Association to come up with a comprehensive bill. He stressed that the bill is not intended to stop tobacco growing but rather seeks to, among other motives, to protect and promote the interests of tobacco growers by promoting economically viable alternative livelihoods. Hon. Baryomunsi further explained that the bill has strategically provided for the establishment of a tobacco control inter-ministerial committee and a secretariat which will coordinate the implementation and enforcement of the regulations. This he said, is aimed putting in place measures for enforcing the regulations. The motion to table the bill will be seconded by Hon. David Bahati.
The Chair of the session Hon. Kasiano Wadri, who is also an MP from one of the tobacco growing regions in West Nile stressed the need for the bill to propose alternative livelihood options for the vast number of farmers involved in the growing of tobacco.
The bill seeks to regulate the manufacture, sale, labeling, promotion, advertising, and sponsorship of tobacco products and the distribution and public use of tobacco products, and provide related matters in order to;
•Ensure that Uganda meets its obligations as provided for in WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control ( FCTC)
•Recognize, promote and protect the right to health and the right to life as fundamental human rights
•Protect the health of the population and ensure protection of minors;
•Ensure that the population is adequately informed about the risks of tobacco use
•Ensure that tobacco products and tobacco industry practices are regulated
•Protect the environment from degradation caused by tobacco related related activities; and
•To protect and promote the interests of tobacco growers by promoting economically viable alternative livelihoods
The tobacco control advocates at the hearing re-emphasized the fact that the bill is aimed at promoting and protect the right to health and the right to life as fundamental human rights, and that no justification whatsoever can supersede that;
‘ We have struggled for the last many years with HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB. If we allow the tobacco related death and disease to become an epidemic, Africa does not have the resources to deal with that. We have an obligation to act and save this continent, no matter who we are or what we do. Let’s not confuse the issues. This discussion is not about tobacco farming or growing, or about the tobacco industry. This discussion is about a law, a bill whose objective is to protect the lives of the people of this country and to prevent death. That’s what this bill is about. I would like to urge our brothers on the other side, if there is one time we must stand together, it is now because what is at stake are the lives of the people. Nothing matters more in Africa. I urge all of us to act with determination to get this bill in place for we will stand to be judged by generations. ‘ Joshua Kyallo, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.
CTCA Manager, Dr. Possy Mugyenyi out cried the health and economic burden that tobacco infringes on the country, adding that all those lives can be prevented if we have a comprehensive law in place;
‘Uganda loses 13,000 people every year due to tobacco related illnesses. This is equivalent to 30 preventable deaths every day. Let’s calculate the cost of the thirty people we lose on a daily basis. Uganda Cancer Institute is given only five billion shillings and yet it requires 100 billion to give quality services. And not all the patients who have cancer come to the Institute in Mulago. On average, smokers die 14 years younger than none smokers. Can we compute the loss to the economy of Uganda when people die 14 years younger? At one time slave trade was a legal trade. But somebody took courage to say slave trade is bad, much as America was earning from it. We should therefore stop using legalist arguments. We are saying, is this legal product good for the health of our people? When we are talking about the bill, let’s not equate tobacco to other products. Tobacco is the only product that affects by standers that are not involved in the crime. 600,000 people die every year due to second hand smoke, and these are innocent by standers.‘ Possy Mugyenyi, CTCA Manager.
Dr. Sheila Ndyanabangi of the MoH dispelled the fiction that some level of smoking is safe;
‘ There is nothing like ‘proper use of tobacco. Tobacco, in all its forms and quantities is dangerous. There is no proper use of tobacco. In fact, it is the only product which, if used according to the Manufacture’s instructions, leads to death. ‘
Dr. Sheilla Ndyanabangi lashed out at the Industry for pretending to care about the health of their consumers saying that if they did, they would produce the same packaging for all their markets. She noted that the fact that the health warnings UK and Kenya for instance, by the same company, are more visible than those in Uganda, yet they are produced by the same manufacturer, implying that a life in Kenya or UK is more valuable than that in Uganda. This, she stressed, cannot go on unchecked, which is why the law is necessary.
Hon. Okupa Elijah, one of the legislators revealed that according to the findings of a World Bank report, for every dollar earned from the tobacco industry, three dollars are spent in treating tobacco related illnesses. He said that 75% of cancer cases in Mulago Hospital, the national referral hospital, have had a history of having smoked tobacco for a range of about 3-45 years.
The lawyer of the Tobacco Industry questioned the extent to which the bill is aligned with the existing legislative framework in Uganda, and how the obligations of the FCTC will be aligned to other multilateral conventions and treaties like the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATTS), World Trade Organization (WTO), the East African Community, AU and COMESA treaties among others.
The farmers who attended the session conceded to the fact that if they had a viable alternative, they would shift to tobacco growing. They specifically requested that the bill includes a section on the effects of tobacco growing to the farmers.
‘Tobacco has brought so much poverty in our areas. Most people have had to migrate because of loans from the tobacco companies. When you grow tobacco, the input exceeds the output by about 500%. When these people give you a loan to grow tobacco, in the long run, by the time you sell it, you find that you have got a loss of twenty five thousand shillings ( about $10 ) per acre. Most of the farmers don’t even have where to keep the tobacco and have to sleep with it in their houses, and they get affected by the fumes. We therefore call upon our MPs to ensure that the bill includes a section which talks about the negative social and economic impact of tobacco growing to us the farmers.’ John Sengoma, a former tobacco farmer from Kanungu district who has shifted to rice growing.
The Tobacco Industry was given a period of two weeks to make their input into the bill, after which, a final version will be prepared for tabling. The mover of the motion, Hon. Chris Baryomunsi is expected to table the motion in the first week of September, 2012. The Speaker of Uganda’s Parliament, Hon. Rebecca Kadaga has re-assured the country that the Tobacco Control bill will be law by the end of this year.