High Court declares shisha ban unconstitutional

The High Court has declared the government's ban on shisha unconstitutional and unlawful, ruling that the law used to impose the prohibition is no longer valid. Justice Bahati Mwamuye found that the Public Health (Control of Shisha Smoking) Rules, 2017, lost legal force after the government failed to regularise them within the nine months granted by the court in 2018. The judge further held that enforcing the expired regulations infringed on the petitioners' constitutional rights, consequently barring the government from taking enforcement action against members of the Novel Tobacco Products Association.