Manufacturers unable to comply with pack rules

BAT Kenya’s managing director Chris Burrell said yesterday that no company would be able to comply with new tobacco packaging regulations scheduled to take effect on June 1, according to a Kenya Broadcasting Corporation story relayed by the TMA.

The new regulations were said to ban cigarette manufacturers, importers and distributors ‘from selling products with brand names or trademarks on their packaging’.

They required, too, new health warnings on the front and back of the packs.

Burrell said it would not be possible to comply with the regulations because no manufacturer in Kenya had received technical specifications concerning the law’s implementation.

BAT Kenya is asking the government to allow negotiations on some of the rules.

It will seek legal action if the government does not amend ‘the flaws in the regulations’, Burrell was quoted as saying.