War against fakes must be won at all costs

Early this week, the Anti-Counterfeit Agency (ACA) announced that it had confiscated goods worth over 125 million shillings in just one month. These goods were either fake or imported irregularly, or both. Of the heist, or is it seizure, Sh85 million worth was in one consignment safely imported from a country in the Far East to the port of Mombasa and onward to the Inland Container Deport (ICD) in Nairobi’s Embakasi. It included a 40-inch container full of “fake circuit breakers” It means the Sh85 million counterfeits belonged to one trader, or at least, one entity. I will come back to why this is an important fact later.

Though the story did not tell us what happened to those who were responsible for the importation, I swear something must have happened to them, or should. Behind every crime, there is a criminal.

Anyway, in the period between May and October last year, ACA Chief Executive Officer Elema Halake says the Multi-Agency Anti-Illicit Trade Outreach (MAAITO), a government team that also includes Kenya Revenue Authority, Kenya Police and the Kenya Bureau of Standards, seized counterfeit goods valued at Sh8.5 billion. In the same period, some 200 suspected culprits were arrested and charged in court.

There is no doubt that business in counterfeits, just like all illegal business, is bad business. It is bad for the economy, it is bad for our health and it is bad for good business. Every time a counterfeit product is transacted, a genuine product is stuck on some shelve somewhere. The Kenya Association of Manufacturers claims its members lose about 40 percent of their business to counterfeiters. Counterfeit business feeds terrorism, it feeds corruption and feeds unemployment. It also kills directly. You can imagine the danger posed by fake circuit breakers, for instance! You may also remember the panic the country was subjected to when we were told some rice and sugar laced with poison had been imported into the country and was already in our dining rooms. Terrorists who engage in biological warfare actually treasure the counterfeit industry. It provides an environment conducive enough for them to kill their targets and make money while at it. We are told the Government loses more than Sh30 billion every year in unremitted tax alone due to counterfeit business.

That is why reports of success in the counter-counterfeit effort, any success however modest, should be applauded by everyone, including those who think they benefit from the vice directly. It is also the reason the country was excited when former provincial administrator Wanyama Musyambo was appointed Deputy Head of Civil Service and immediately embarked on a rather public onslaught against counterfeits. Although the public show of bravado has since withered, the billions of shillings worth of goods so far seized is an indication that Mr Musyambo isn’t dead, or sleeping.

But this war, like all wars, has had and is having casualties every passing day. And the bereaved are wailing, louder by the day!

Sh8 billion in confiscated goods is not small change. Eight people might have been reduced from billionaires to paupers in just over five months, 125 from millionaires to street beggars in just a month.

And that takes me back to the probable single importer of the 40-feet container of circuit breakers. Having toyed with business at some point, albeit in just the over Sh100,000 version, I can only imagine how a man or woman would feel if they lost merchandise worth Sh85 million in one fell swoop! The wail this man would produce will surely go beyond hills and valleys.

This week, there was a whimper from a man that had all the hallmarks of someone who has lost millions of shillings, only that the millions have the near-unmistakable handwriting of trade in counterfeits! There emerged a letter that gained some currency on the alternative media whose author narrated how they had been reduced from a multi-millionaire to a pauper contemplating suicide. The author of the missive titled, An open letter to President Uhuru from a Kikuyu hawker in Nyamakima, downtown Nairobi, mourns how alleged bad policies by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy have reduced his business from an all-time high of Sh10 million net profit a month to barely Sh1m a month gross. The 32-year-old who started his business in Nyamakima at 21 says in the first year he would make Sh5 million a month and continued on the upward trajectory until 2016 when Uhurutto happened. Now, he is about to close shop and warns that he won’t go down without a fight.

He is promising a revolution!

Nyamakima, its sister addresses of Luthuli Avenue, River Road, Grogan Street and Kirinyaga Road are areas in downtown Nairobi where you are likely to get any electronic, electric and motor vehicle item or spare part on the cheap. It’s where counterfeit takes a short break before heading to your house, car and bar.

Many more wails will be heard from that direction. But you can be sure they will die over time when the criers realise the futility of crying over spilt milk, if Musyambo and his team do not run out of steam earlier. Or corruption wears them out.

In the meantime, before the Nyamakima trader leads me to a revolution, he will have to teach me how to make Sh10 million net profit a month from a legit hustle. I won’t take part in toppling a government for protecting me against suicidal profiteers!

Mr Mugwang’a, a communications consultant, is a former crime and security reporter; [email protected]