Technology growth fans trade in counterfeits

By James Ratemo

Kenya is a lucrative destination for counterfeit goods due to its porous borders and ineffective legislation despite hue and cry from electronics manufacturers.

Unless the perpetrators are brought to book, manufacturers warn the situation can only get worse as Kenya gears to get connected to high-speed internet.

It is expected that the much-awaited fibre optic marine cables, expected to start landing in Mombasa next month, would hike demand for electronic gadgets like smart phones, laptops digital televisions, internet modems and other computer networking paraphernalia.

Developed economies in Europe and America have stringent inspection routines in place making Africa, with its anti-counterfeit weak legislation vulnerable to international counterfeiters.

Regardless of the anti-counterfeit law, delay in the formation of an anti-counterfeit agency as stipulated in the Act means counterfeiters are in business as usual.

The objective of the Act is to prohibit trade in counterfeit goods. However, the agency is the body charged with the implementation of the law.

property rights

For long there has been a campaign to harmonise anti-counterfeiting laws across Africa with industrial property rights experts blaming the failure to deal with the vice on the disjointed legal regime.

Nokia Communications Manager for East and Southern Africa Dorothy Ooko said in Kenya, counterfeiters have been taking advantage of lack of clear legal framework and the absence of a regional policy on counterfeiting.

"Consumers should ensure they buy phones from accredited distributors and insist on the one-year warranty we offer. If there is no warranty then chances are that product is fake or illegally smuggled into the country," she warned.

According to statistics from the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, businesses lose more than Sh50 billion each year to counterfeit products and illicit trade, while the Governmen loses Sh35 billion annually in tax revenue.

"Counterfeiting has stifled Africa’s industrial growth considerably. Kenya’s IT industry has the potential for 200 per cent growth but has been hampered by counterfeit products," Hewlett-Packard East Africa’s Enterprise Sales Manager Charles Munyororo, said in a past interview.

organised groups

The market for toners, cartridges and other consumables in the country is losing more than Sh500 million every month due to counterfeits, he said.

"There are well organised groups working in Kenya that manufacture and distribute fake HP products," said Ms Tina Rose, HP’s anti-counterfeit manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The menace has not only affected the electronics sub-sector but also medicine, cosmetics, music and motor vehicle are the industries which, according to the African Regional Intellectual Property Rights Organisation’s, are being forced to scale down on their operations as consumers looking for cheap gadgets turn to counterfeits.