BAT Kenya has dismantled and sold its nicotine pouch manufacturing plant after failing to get a license from the government. In 2021, BAT Kenya completed the plant at a cost of KSh 2.5 billion.
BAT Kenya serves as a manufacturing hub for 18 African countries. The failure to obtain the license is a big blow to the country’s manufacturing sector.
People and regime apologists will try to sell the narrative that the factory’s license was denied due to health concerns.
Nothing can be further from the truth. No law restricts the use of nicotine pouches. In fact, BAT markets them in Kenya, which means they import them from elsewhere.
People consume these products within the country. But as a country, the government would rather import than manufacture locally. What is the logic behind this?
The government is actively destroying the local manufacturing sector and sending young Kenyans to the Middle East as slave labor. Yet I can’t understand why the youths are angry.
Corruption is killing this country. Extortion schemes by government officials typically frustrate such projects.
Endemic corruption ensures that no foreign investor can set up shop in the country without paying bribes or ceding part of their business’s ownership to politically favoured operatives.
The cigarette industry in Kenya has been under constant pressure. The illegal importation of counterfeit cigarettes with unknown safety has taken its toll.
If the government doesn’t take serious action, this counterfeiting will destroy what’s left of our struggling manufacturing sector.
Via Ephraim Njenga
