British American Tobacco Kenya - Tobacco growing

BAT Kenya partners with over 5000 tobacco farmers in the growing of high quality leaf, mainly concentrated in the counties of Migori, Bungoma and Meru.

As a key stakeholder in Kenya’s tobacco industry, and with a view to safeguard the integrity of our tobacco leaf, we implement innovative and sustainable farming technologies, techniques and global best practices, which are rolled out to farmers as part of comprehensive agri-support packages. However, as part of the wider agricultural sector, there is a need to integrate tobacco growing into the national agricultural framework.

Currently, the country lacks a national regulatory framework which tobacco growing counties can align with. A number of laws governing agriculture in Kenya including the Crop Production and Livestock Act were repealed. As an interim measure, the 1994 Tobacco Growing and Marketing Regulations were saved under the Crops Act 2013.

As agriculture is now devolved, there exists a gap between the national framework and proposed county regulations. Counties seeking to come up with their own regulations need guidance on standardizing tobacco growing laws across all the counties and further, there is a need to make the national regulatory framework a reality.