Health experts sound alarm over excessive use of Velo as MPs push for ban

Health experts have sounded an alarm over an addictive nicotine substance going by the brand name Velo.

The products sold under the Velo brand, formerly Lyft, have flooded the Kenyan market ensnaring thousands of its users, mostly youth, into a web of dependency. 

However, the product does not fully disclose the health risks or effects associated with it as the law requires.

Legislators now want the Ministry of Health to move with speed to withdraw the addictive nicotine substance from the Kenyan market.

On Wednesday, Members of Parliament used the afternoon question time session to ventilate over the penetration of the addictive nicotine substance Velo into the market.

Nominated MP Sabina Chege sneaked into the National Assembly chambers with two tins full of Velo pouches, to illustrate the dangers of the highly addictive substances which are sold in the local market even to school-going children.

Chege posed the question before Health Cabinet Secretary Wafula Nakhumincha who was in plenary.

“This Velo has become an addiction…can the Health CS tell us what it contains?” Posed the legislator.

CS Nakhumincha, in a response, said: “Velo is a non-pharmaceutical substance...it is a tobacco product.”

The discussion on Velo in Parliament took a different twist when the Health CS told MPs that Velo was a rebrand of Lyft, a substance banned in the country in 2020.

“Velo is a rebrand of Lyft... Lyft was banned by my predecessor,” she said as MPs wondered why a substance banned was still on Kenyan shelves.

The abuse of the substance has raised an alarm among health experts who have warned of potential harm and the long-term effects on users’ health.

“Tunajua kwamba inaleta vitu kama high blood pressure na hypertension,” said  Catherine Mutisya, a consultant psychiatrist.

It has since been established that Velo is imported into the country from Hungary by a local tobacco manufacturing firm and distributed locally for sale.

MPs now question why the Ministry of Health has not flagged the same through the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS).

“Now that you have said it is imported from Hungary why are we allowing illegal drugs in circulation?” Chege posed.

Another concern raised by the experts is the failure to display the health hazards Velo products sold in Kenya have with only one warning on the front cover: ‘This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.’

“The saddest thing is that users don’t want to think it is harmful as cigarettes because they have packaged it nicely…the caution put on cigarettes should apply on Velo,” Ms Mutisya noted.

Velo users who spoke to Citizen Digital agree on the addictive nature of the drug.

“I had a horrible experience…you feel like you are in another world since the highness of Velo is three times that of marijuana. You can be conscious for the whole day,” said a student and user Geoffrey Odhiambo.

The Health CS told the MPs that her ministry is aware of the danger that Velo continues to pose in the country and has directed a team to be set up to look into the Tobacco Act of 2007 to ensure it is withdrawn from the Kenyan market.