Some vilify it, others simply can't do without it.

About four years ago the Government banned the promotion of tobacco products via tv and radio ads in an effort to reduce the number of new smokers (and probably also getting habit smokers to smoke less); it also increased sin-tax on the product, banned the sale of single cigarette sticks and enforced the printing of  warning messages on cigarette packs. This was in line with the Tobacco Control Act. The WHO also has similar guidelines, but of a more stringent nature - a recognition that smoking has diverse and deadly effects on society.

Australia recently banned the printing of company labels, colours and IP material on the cigarette pack (a lady judge on the bench, whose dad died of smoking related illnesses, delivering the death blow on Big Tobacco) - the court going a step further and sanctioning the printing of graphic images of lungs deteriorated by tobacco.

In Kenya, the Kenya Manufacturers Association is of the opinion that harsh tobacco regulation could easily cause farmers on the "tobacco belt" to shun the crop in favour of more profitable crops, leading to unemployment (maybe) and lead the revenue authority to collect less taxes on reduced sales.

But maybe that's not such a bad thing, seeing that Big Tobacco is convinced that nicotine is not addictive and has no cacirogenic potential. Our already failing health sector is groaning under the weight of cancer patients it cannot cater for and the net cost on the economy is not one that can be wished away by KRA collections on every puff.

Time we did the same for shisha?