I recall a time when the face of tobacco addiction in Kenya was unmistakable. It belonged to an adult, often a man, with a cigarette dangling from weathered fingers. The harm was visible, the villain well-known. Today, the face of addiction has shifted, and it is far more difficult to recognise. It belongs to a teenager scrolling through TikTok after school, captivated by a sleek device held by their favourite influencer. We are witnessing a silent epidemic, one where novel tobacco products are driving young Kenyans into early nicotine addiction, fueled largely by the very screens we cannot seem to put down. Recent data confirms what many parents fear. While traditional smoking rates have declined to 9%, a new generation is being hooked on products that look more like USB drives than instruments of addiction. The 2024 NACADA survey on university students reveals that 12% currently use tobacco products, with 5.8% using e-cigarettes and 4.2% using nicotine pouches. Among adolescents aged 10-17, these numbers are rising, with children as young as six trying nicotine pouches and nine experimenting with e-cigarettes. The numbers alone are chilling, but the real story is how these products arrived in the hands of our children. If you want to understand why this crisis is accelerating, look no further than your phone. The tobacco industry has masterfully exploited a regulatory blind s...
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