Local authorities in other jurisdictions would do well to follow the path-breaking move.  Apart from making our towns grungy, smoking in public places has left many non-smokers reeling from a harmful combination of smoke from the burning end of the cigarette and the smoke breathed out by smokers. Most establishments have made no attempt to protect non-smokers from toxic wisps of secondhand smoke, which are a known to contain more than 4,000 chemicals, many of which are toxic and carcogenic.

Indeed, current scientific knowledge has shown that secondhand smoke makes the blood vessels of a non-smoker behave like those of a regular smoker, damaging the lining of blood vessels and increasing the likelihood of a deadly heart attack.

Secondhand smoke, the only source of air-borne nicotine, also irritates the skin, eyes, nose, throat, and makes people with allergies or a history of breathing problems even sicker. Breathing second-hand smoke is a known cause of sudden infant death syndrome. Children are also more likely to have lung problems, ear infections, and severe asthma from being around smoke.

Yet some smokers feel that they should be allowed to continue practising this dangerously harmful habit in public places. Some have charged that the smoking ban is cramping their style and curtailing their human rights, but they forget that smoking is not a right.

Everyone has a right to breathe clean air and smoking in public places flies in the face of that fundamental right. All it is, is a rush of blood, and leaves alight with substances that clog our arteries, foul our breaths, sting our eyes and shorten our lives.

Smokers should be grateful that local authorities have magnanimously offered them "smoking zones" where they can continue their bothersome habit and write their obituaries. Some smokers have trivialised this issue with the two-bit argument that the government should also ban nose-picking and other idiosyncrasies that may not be socially acceptable.

This is a vacuous prospect that glosses over the verified fact that smoking - and secondhand smoke - are certified health hazards. A person picking his or her nose next to me won't harm my health. A smoker will. A ban on smoking in public places helps to prevent someone's cigarette smoke from sticking in my pores. It orotects my freedoms, from those of another.

Much as smoking is an individual choice and a cigarette is a legal product, it bears mentioning that cigarettes are not less addictive than cocaine, marijuana and other toxic substances pushed to us by individuals and companies whose sole objective is profits and more profits at the expense of people's lives.

I concede that the ban on smoking in public may have a ring of the nanny-state to it, not least to smokers, but we sorely need it because the importance of cleaner air cannot be gainsaid. In any case, Kenyans already abide by a raft of other laws that regulate private behaviours, especially as they relate to other people.

As partygoers who meld alcohol with cigarettes grouse about the ban affecting their "fun," they should spare a thought for the scores of Kenyans who have been forced to make ends meet by working in smoky restaurants, pubs and other entertainment spots. Cigarette smoke is a dangerous pollutant that many people would rather avoid at their workplaces.

Most whining office workers enjoy smoke-free workplaces and they should allow folks in the hospitality industry to enjoy the same. Business owners should not be allowed to jeopardise the health of their employees in their blind pursuit of profits.

Non-smoking zones within restaurants, entertainment haunts and other social places are not as airtight as many would think. Studies have shown that a non-smoker sitting in the non-smoking section of a restaurant for two hours would breathe the equivalent of smoke from one-and-a-half cigarettes.

Sitting behind someone smoking in a bar for two hours would be the equivalent of smoking six cigarettes, and working in a smoker-friendly office for eight hours would be equivalent to smoking six cigarettes - without even lighting up!

Life is short. And smoking shortens it even further, by a decade, according to a report released by the World Health Organisation in 2004 after a 50-year study.

The Nakuru, Mombasa and Nairobi councils are on the right path. Other councils should follow their lead and ban smoking in public places. It will keep our environment clean and save lives .