CONTRIBUTORS
Gershim Asiki
Head of Chronic Disease Management
Jane Valentine Mangwana
Advocacy Manager
Kenya is facing an increasing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) due to unhealthy food choices. In Kenya, about four out of ten people die from NCDs such as heart disease, diabetes, or cancer, and five out of ten people are being treated for an NCD. In 2022, the Kenya Demographic Health Survey (KDHS) highlighted a sharp increase in overweight and obesity rates, particularly among women aged 20–29. These rates have tripled, rising from 15% in 1993 to a staggering 45% in 2022. Traditionally, NCDs were perceived to be diseases of affluence, but this is no longer the case. They now affect both wealthy and low-income populations, spanning rural and urban areas alike. Because most people are not aware of these diseases, they are silently dying unnoticed.
The recent surge in the NCD disease burden is attributed to changes in lifestyle, particularly the increased consumption of foods high in salt, sugar, and fats. The food environment—defined as the collective physical, economic, policy, and socio-cultural surroundings, opportunities, and conditions that influence people’s food and beverage choices and nutritional status—has been identified as one of the common drivers of all forms of malnutrition. Unhealthy food environments lead to unhealthy diets.
A 2018 study by the African Population and Health Research Center revealed that minimal progress has been made in developing and implementing food environment policies for NCD prevention. As part of this assessment, the national policy experts identified four priority food environment policy areas: front-of-pack labeling, fiscal policies, restriction of marketing of unhealthy foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children, and public procurement and service policies.
Kenya urgently needs policies and regulations to promote healthy food consumption and prevent NCDs. Front-of-pack food labeling (FOPL) refers to simple text and graphics, pictures, or color codes that are easy to interpret, enabling consumers to easily recognize healthier food options when shopping. Through fiscal policies, governments increase taxes on less healthy foods and beverages, reduce taxes on healthier options to increase their affordability, and provide subsidies for healthy foods to make healthy eating choices easier and cheaper. The revenue from such taxes can be used to support vulnerable communities in accessing healthier foods, funding school meal programs and other health programs, and treating people already diagnosed with NCDs. Examples of African countries that have begun implementing fiscal policies include Morocco, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa.
Child-directed marketing restriction aims to reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy foods commonly marketed to them. The regulation targets foods high in saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, free sugars, or salt. A recent study conducted by APHRC has shown high rates of unhealthy food advertising around schools, on television and radio, and in supermarkets. By limiting direct marketing through advertisements on billboards, radio, TV, and social media or in places where children play, this policy seeks to protect children in Kenya from unhealthy food marketing.
The healthy public food procurement policy will focus on improving the nutritional quality of food procured by private and public institutions along the food supply chain to create healthier food environments. Institutions such as schools, hospitals, and prisons will be expected to follow the policy to enable them to serve or sell healthier foods to the general public.
The Kenya Ministry of Health is developing these policies through a robust consultative process supported by local research evidence to ensure that the policies benefit all Kenyans. All the policies will be guided by the Kenya Nutrient Profile Model (KNPM), a document locally developed in Kenya with support from various partners, including the World Health Organization. The nutrient profile model classifies foods and drinks according to their nutritional composition using the recommended levels of salt, sugar, and fat added to foods. The levels of sugar, salt, and fat set as thresholds in various foods were developed through a thorough consultative process with health and nutrition experts and several stakeholders, including the general public. If all these policies are implemented together as a bundle, Kenya will make great strides in promoting healthier food choices, which would contribute to reducing the NCD burden in the country.