Kenya working on a bill to outlaw counterfeits

Kenneth Oduor

NAIROBI, Kenya- The Kenyan government plans to enact a Bill to deal effectively with the incessant problem of counterfeit goods. The move has already received support by players in the country’s industrial sector.
The proposal to enact the Bill was announced by the country’s Minister for Finance Amos Kimunya when he read this year’s budget.

The chairman of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers who is also the Managing Director of Eveready East Africa Steve Smith has said that the timely formulation of the Bill to be known as the Anti- Counterfeits Bill would be a major boon for manufacturers. He said that manufacturers in the country were incurring huge losses due to counterfeits and said the enactment of such a bill is long overdue.

“The Anti- Counterfeits Bill, which was developed with the involvement of the private sector, is not only going to help the government enforce quality standards, but also protect the local manufacturing sector from unfair competition”, said Smith.
Dr. Smith exuded confidence that the Bill will be enacted by Parliament before its dissolution for the General Elections slated for later this year.
The Kenyan Cabinet has also approved the tabling of the Bill before Parliament. This was revealed by the Managing Director of the country’s quality standardization body, the Kenya Bureau of Standards, Dr. Kioko Mangeli.

The new law according to Dr. Mangeli will propose stiffer penalties for those found trading in counterfeit goods.
“It is appalling that our economy loses about 12-18 per cent in revenue due to counterfeits”, said Mangeli.
The Kenya Bureau of Standards boss further faulted the current laws on counterfeits saying they were insufficient and was more lenient on offenders. He said this has seen the increase in the illicit trade in counterfeits.
Dr. Mangeli said that even though there were numerous cases being handled by the organization, most of them ended up being dismissed or offenders handed linient sentences.

“Most of these counterfeits are from China. Most of them are electronics, cosmetics and medicine”, he revealed. •