Watchdog seizes 800 cartons of counterfeit cigarettes

What you need to know:

The cargo with an estimated retail value of Sh43.3 million was in transit to South Sudan packaged in unlabelled 866 cartons.
ACA inspectors, working in partnership with the Customs officers, discovered that packets branded as ‘Bringi’ from Sudan were imitations imported from India.
Bringi is a cigarette brand produced by Khartoum-based Haggar Cigarette & Tobacco Company.

Anti-Counterfeit Agency inspectors on Tuesday seized more than 8.7 million sticks of counterfeit cigarettes at the port of Mombasa, raising concern over the level of fake goods in the regional market.

The cargo with an estimated retail value of Sh43.3 million was in transit to South Sudan packaged in unlabelled 866 cartons. ACA inspectors, working in partnership with the Customs officers, discovered that packets branded as ‘Bringi’ from Sudan were imitations imported from India.

Bringi is a cigarette brand produced by Khartoum-based Haggar Cigarette & Tobacco Company. It is an 85-mm filter cigarette, which is packaged in a 10-pack shell and slide configuration.

The ACA officials said they had to call in Haggar Cigarette & Tobacco Company’s official Charl Potgieter to confirm that the seized cigarettes were indeed counterfeits.

“Selling this product is a drain on the regional economy because these cigarettes are entirely untaxed and may be harmful to consumers,” said ACA inspector Ibrahim Bulle.

The seizure comes two days after the Consumer Federation of Kenya (Cofek) claimed there was increased presence of dangerous counterfeit fast-moving consumer goods on supermarket shelves.

The consumer lobby blamed the overlapping mandates of government agencies for the menace, saying the roles of Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs), ACA, Pharmacy & Poisons Board, KRA and private certification agencies need to be harmonised.

The lobby also wants the government to invest in intensive consumer information, education and communication.

“There is lack of political goodwill to stem this challenge. The Kenya Bureau of Standards and ACA no longer proactively carry out meaningful mystery inspections,” Cofek said in a statement. Earlier, the Kenya Association of Manufacturers said the country loses Sh50 billion every year due to counterfeiting.

As a gateway to the landlocked nations in the region, Kenya has been on the receiving end for allowing fake goods to pass through its facilities into the region. Experts say counterfeiters usually target lawless countries and those just emerging from years of conflicts such as South Sudan lacking institutions and laws to curb the menace.

For Bringi cigarettes, the ACA officials said the seizure was the result of several weeks of undercover work.