More than 45 people were Saturday night arrested for smoking shisha in different places in Nyali, Mombasa County.
This followed a raid by officers from the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) conducted a Saturday night raid.
The 45 were arrested at the Hide Out and Escape shisha joints, where more than 50 shisha pots and over 10 cartons containing special shisha flavours were confiscated.
NACADA CEO Anthony Amerikwa said that they will intensify similar raids in the country to free many young people who have ventured into shisha addictions.
“We got information that there are joints that have been selling Shisha. Shisha has been banned since 2017 and upon accessing the premises, we were able to apprehend 38 (among them 29 males) suspects including the proprietor and the manager.
“We were able to collect over 47 shisha pots, over 700 shisha ingredients which we will subject to an assessment to verify the contents from the Government Chemist,” Omerikwa said.
He added that the two sites will be treated as crime scenes.
“If the contents are determined, the suspects’ charges will be updated. For now, they will remain apprehended and will be at the cells awaiting arraignment in court on Monday,” he said.
Omerikwa called on proprietors to operate their establishments within the law noting that the law is very clear.
“We will not relent as a multi-agency to ensure that the law is fully complied with. We will make sure that alcohol and drug abuse is diminished in the country. There are criminal enterprises in Nyali and other places where young people are being inducted into alcohol and drug abuse, which must come to an end.”
NACADA intensified the crackdown on December 2023, vowing to weed out the vice in the nation.
Shisha smoking has been outlawed in Kenya since 2017 after the State banned the use, import, manufacture, distribution and promotion of the tobacco product.
Kenya imposed a ban on shisha in 2017, including advertising, promoting, distributing and encouraging or facilitating its use. Shisha smoking, also known as water pipe, hookah, or hubble-bubble, was outlawed in Kenya in 2017.
The comprehensive ban covered use, import, manufacture, sale, promotion, and distribution of the product. Offenders face fines starting at Sh50,000 or a minimum jail term of six months.
Kenya joined neighboring East African countries Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda in prohibiting the use of shisha.
The agency said they will continue with the exercise in other joints.
In 2017, Kenya implemented a comprehensive ban on shisha, including advertising, promotion, distribution and encouraging or facilitating its use.
“Any person who contravenes any provision of these regulations may, where a penalty is not expressly provided for in any provision of the Act, be liable to the penalty provided for in section 163 of the Act,” the government said when announcing the ban on December 27, 2017.
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