Today marked the official start of the Tobacco Industry Monitoring Research and Accountability (TIMRA) 2026 Workshop, hosted by the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath. I am honoured to be representing Kenya in person and deeply grateful to the University of Bath for their generous support in making my participation possible.
The opening session introduced participants to the objectives, structure, and expectations for the week, setting the stage for five days of intensive learning on monitoring and countering tobacco industry interference.
The Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index
One of the most insightful sessions focused on the Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index. Unlike reports that assess tobacco industry activities alone, this Index evaluates how governments respond—or fail to respond—to tobacco industry tactics.
The Index assesses countries across seven key indicators:
- Whether the tobacco industry participates in policy development.
- Efforts to denormalise tobacco industry corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.
- Whether governments provide benefits or incentives to the tobacco industry.
- Avoidance of unnecessary interactions and rejection of partnerships with the industry.
- Transparency of any interactions that do occur.
- Measures to prevent conflicts of interest.
- Limiting interactions strictly to those that are necessary for regulation.
A preview of the 2025 Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index highlighted worrying trends. In several countries, tobacco industry lobbying contributed to delays in tobacco taxation and stalled tobacco control legislation. Corporate social responsibility activities continued to be used strategically to improve the industry’s public image and strengthen relationships with governments, despite clear recommendations under Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Learning from History
The third session revisited the history of tobacco industry deception, including the landmark 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. The release of more than six million internal tobacco industry documents revealed that manufacturers had known about the dangers of tobacco since the 1960s while publicly denying its harmful effects.
The discussion also explored the international legal framework for tobacco control, including the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, which entered into force in 2018. Participants examined how tobacco control policies are broadly divided into demand-side measures that reduce consumer demand and supply-side measures that restrict production and availability.
Understanding Industry Interference
A particularly engaging session introduced the Policy Dystopia Model, an evidence-based framework that explains how the tobacco industry seeks to undermine tobacco control policies.
The model demonstrates how the industry employs recurring arguments and political strategies to delay, weaken, or prevent effective regulation while adapting these tactics to different political and social contexts. A key takeaway from this discussion was that today’s tobacco industry has evolved into a multi-addiction industry, expanding beyond conventional tobacco products and requiring advocates to anticipate increasingly sophisticated forms of interference.
Illicit Tobacco Trade
The final session focused on illicit tobacco trade and the tobacco industry’s role in shaping both public perception and policy responses.
Illicit trade undermines tobacco control by expanding the tobacco market, reducing government tax revenue, weakening regulatory enforcement, and facilitating organised crime. Participants explored common strategies used to facilitate illicit trade, including overproduction, oversupplying selected markets, and exploiting transit hubs to divert products into illegal channels.
Looking Ahead
The first day of TIMRA 2026 has reinforced the importance of understanding tobacco industry behaviour, strengthening government accountability, and using evidence to anticipate and counter industry interference.
As the workshop continues, I look forward to building on these lessons and exploring practical approaches that can strengthen tobacco control efforts both in Kenya and globally.
#TIMRA2026
ODUOR KEVIN 