COTU wants ongoing crackdown on illicit brews extended to counterfeit goods

Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary General Francis Atwoli

The on-going crackdown on all illicit brews across the country should be extended to counterfeit goods as well in order to protect jobs, revenues to the government and the Kenyan consumers from hazardous goods, Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary General Francis Atwoli has said.

In a statement to the media, Atwoli said counterfeits are worse than illicit brews on the Kenyan market today and it is absurd that such goods dominate our markets unabated exposing many Kenyans to hazards, low quality products besides creating unfair competition to genuine companies that are committed to paying taxes to the government.

“Equally, the jobs available in such companies expose workers to dangerous working environments with deaths being reported often as the entire economy of the country is exposed to unscrupulous business enterprises thriving on cheats and conmanship through production of poisonous, dangerous and duplicate products at cheap prices hence killing our local genuine industries that form the basis for employment creation and revenues sustainability to the government. In any case why should a reputable government allow such an illicit business at the expense of the country’s entire economy?”

The COTU secretary general urged the government to use the same machinery, vigour, zeal and impetus to reign in these agents of counterfeits and protect members of the public from hazardous products and jobs since everyone knows where these companies are located including the Kenya Anti-counterfeits Agency personnel while challenging both the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) and Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) on the same.

COTU now calls upon President Uhuru Kenyatta to personally intervene in this thriving illicit business of counterfeits as he did with illicit brews and help cushion genuine enterprises that are now threatened with closure as a result of counterfeits currently flooding local markets.