Kenya ‘loses Sh70bn’ as fakes flood market

Close to Sh70 billion was lost in Kenya as a result of counterfeits last year, the Nation has learnt.

According to the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (Kam), counterfeits cost local companies more than Sh50 billion last year alone. The government also lost Sh19 billion in taxes last year due to the manufacture and sale of fake goods.

The products, which have found their way onto the local market, include foodstuff, clothes, medicine, electronic gadgets and batteries. Some even don the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) quality mark.

Counterfeiting is a threat that can no longer be ignored or allowed to continue in the East African region, according to African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation director-general Gift Sibanda.

Speaking during a counterfeits workshop in Nairobi on Friday, Mr Sibanda said problems of counterfeits and piracy need to be addressed and eliminated to avert economic losses the world over.
Music sector

“Kenya and East Africa as a whole have had their share of being a destination of a large percentage of counterfeit goods, including medicines mainly from Asia,” he said.

He said the music sector has also not been spared, adding that governments should fight piracy in the region.

Kenya Industrial Property Institute managing director, Prof James Odek, said manufacturing industries in the region were at risk of collapsing if pirated and counterfeit products continued to find their way into the country.

Industrialisation assistant minister Nderitu Miriithi said the formation of the Anti-Counterfeit Agency would herald a new chapter in the fight against substandard goods.

The government is preparing to launch the new anti-counterfeit watchdog with powers to destroy fake goods imported into the country. It will be expected to investigate and arrest suspects.

Kam described the signing of the Anti-Counterfeit Bill, 2008, into law by President Kibaki late last year as a positive move in the fight against counterfeits. “This Act is a positive and major step because it establishes the legal framework within which counterfeits can be dealt with,” said Mr Dickson Poloji, a Kam official.