Stamp out the counterfeits, they're ruining lives, economy

Multi-agency officers from Public Health, KEBS, KRA, DCI and Police officers inspecting suspected contraband Sugar at a warehouse belonging to Kanini Supermarket in Nakuru on June 19, 2018. [Kipsang Joseph/Standard]

At the Border Control desk in any of the US’s ports of entry, hawk-eyed Customs officials painstakingly go through each and every item getting into the United States. Visitors are asked what they have in their bags just to be sure. Often, anything that can be grown – seeds of grains, legumes, nuts, cereal and others- is seized and destroyed promptly. That way, the US eliminates the risk of cross-pollination and thereby maintains the standards of its agricultural products. It should even be harder to get into the US finished products of any kind though it remains the biggest market for drugs from South America.

Locally, the recent spate of discoveries of counterfeit sugar and other products hidden in warehouses spread across the country has opened our eyes into the underworld of fakes. It has also exposed the weakness of enforcement agencies at controlling what gets into the country and ensuring that it is for the purpose declared at entry.

The KRA, the police and KEBS stand indicted. How could tonnes of sugar sneak into the country without notice? Or how could sugar meant for industrial use find its way onto supermarket shelves? And the contraband is not limited to sugar alone. Globally, the fake industry is worth billions of dollars. In Kenya, other than fighting off cut-throat competition, most traders must compete with the fakes; from confectioneries, to medicine, food items, to clothing and shoes, from electronics to spare parts, they are all there. Just to show how grave the matter is, in 1995, fake meningitis vaccines caused the death of about 2,500 people in Niger. Eradicating it is costly and time consuming.

But fight it, we must. Besides its hazardous effects, the fake industry is inimical to trade and commerce because it drives up the cost of doing business by denying investors and the taxman much sought after revenue.

It also damages a brand’s reputation like what has happened to the sugar factories recently. Worst of all, it disrupts the livelihood of thousands by keeping them out of a job. In fact, the collapse of agriculture, once the backbone of the economy, can be traced to the flourishing fakes industry.

What to do? The fight against fakes must be strategic, targeted and relentless. Like corruption, it is a threat to national security. Nothing should be spared to fight it.