State tightens the noose on traders of fake goods

Kenya’s fragile manufacturing sector is set to get a boost in the marketplace next month as the government tightens its grip on the production and sale of fake goods with the establishment of a new agency.

The move is also expected to shield consumers from the losses incurred with every purchase of fakes and the danger of consuming such goods, a large number of which have been found to bear health and environment risks.

In a gazette notice published last week, Industrialisation minister Henry Kosgey has named a US-based lawyer Onesmus Kipchumba Murkomen and a consumer rights campaigner Tutui Narok to a 14-member Anti Counterfeit Agency Board to be inaugurated next month.

The agency has powers to break into any premises suspected of manufacturing illicit goods and arrest, without a warrant, any person suspected of engaging in counterfeiting of products or trading in fake goods. It will also confiscate and destroy any imported or locally manufactured substandard products.

Appointment of the board also serves notice to manufacturers and dealers in fake goods that they face up to five years in jail if found guilty of trading in fake goods.

The penalty is provided for in the Anti Counterfeits Act that came into effect in July.

Other members of the board will be seconded from the relevant ministries and regulatory bodies such as the Kenya Bureau of Standards.

Establishment of the agency is being seen as the clearest show yet of the government’s determination to shield Kenya’s fragile manufacturing sector from a swamping by fake imported goods.

The fight against counterfeits is seen to be particularly critical to the survival of Kenyan industries in the coming months following last week’s signing of the protocol for the establishment of a common market in East Africa.

The agency offers Kenyan industrialists a strong shield against the looming proliferation of fake goods that cost them an estimated Sh50 billion, according to the Kenya Association of Manufacturers.

KAM also estimates that the government lost Sh19 billion in taxes last year to the manufacturers and traders of counterfeit goods.

Sale of counterfeits is particularly rampant in dry cells, medicines, shoe polish, computer software and accessories, music, and electronic equipment markets.

Polycarp Igathe, the managing director of consumer goods manufacturer Haco said news of the board’s appointment was long overdue.

“It was the last huddle to the rollout of the anti counterfeits law and comes at the right time when we have just signed the EAC protocol on free trade.”

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