Three held over counterfeit car spare parts

The suspects were booked at Central Police Station in Nakuru. [Courtesy]

Three people were arrested in Nakuru Town on Monday over claims they were dealing in counterfeit motor vehicle spare parts.

The suspects, nabbed during a combined operation involving Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, were booked at Central Police Station in Nakuru.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) detectives and customs officials from the three countries, supported by Interpol, took part in the operation that targeted shops mostly dealing in car spare parts.

Following the operation, some spare parts dealers in the town said they have been forced to close their shops over alleged harassment by security officers.

On Monday at least 30 dealers demonstrated outside Central Police Station where they demanded audience with the police bosses over the alleged harassment by police officers.

One of the dealers, Amit Shah, said the security officers have been visiting their shops every two weeks. They have been coming in teams of 10 to 12 people. They say they are officers from the DCI and Kenya Bureau of Standards.

The officers, according to Shah, have been forcefully entering shops, harassing them before loading their wares into waiting vehicles.

“They search the whole shop and remove everything from the shelves. We do not even know if they are police officers because they are in civilian clothes and do not provide any form of identification,” said Shah.

He added: "And they are always demanding money from us. We are stressed up. Three people have been arrested for asking the officers to identify themselves." 

Josiah Kihara said 12 people raided his shop two weeks ago and demanded Sh200,000. He declined to give them the money.

Kishor Shah said he has been forced to close his shop after several raids.

The traders said the officers should address the problem of counterfeit goods with suppliers, not small-scale business people.

They wondered why the officers have kept harassing them when the products they are selling have been approved by the Kenya Bureau of Standards.

The traders said the officers should conduct their search at the port, the point of entry for the goods and confiscate counterfeits from their instead of harassing small-scale traders.

Rift Regional Directorate of Criminal Investigations Paul Wachira, on Tuesday, said the operation is being conducted within the East African region.

“This an issue that has been going on within the East African region, not Kenya alone. Plant owners link up with the anti-counterfeit unit to provide information about their goods that may have been counterfeited. They go around with the officers to identify any goods that have been counterfeited,” Wachira said.

He dismissed claims a certain group of traders is being targeted. He also denied claims the officers were demanding bribes.

“There is no intimidation. The anti-counterfeit officers are working with our officers to fight counterfeiting of products. It is also not true for someone to claim the operation is targeting traders from the Asian community. They may be owning most of the shops but our officers are not targeting them. They have visited many shops including those owned by Africans,” he said.

He said the operation, which has been going on since March 29, will continue.