Counterfeiters have a field day as State flip-flops on import controls

Some of the products police in Busia County seized on September 8, 2019 in an operation against contraband goods. PHOTO | FILE |NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• Sources in the agencies working at the port have intimated to the Nation that the crafty businessmen work with some port officials to create artificial crises
• The famous multi-agency team tasked with fighting fakes is also said to have fizzled out as the connected counterfeiters pulled a powerful political plug on it.

By EDWIN OKOTH
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A cartel of counterfeiters could be behind the government regulatory flip-flops on whether imported goods should be inspected locally or at the country of origin.
Sources in the agencies working at the port have intimated to the Nation that the crafty businessmen work with some port officials to create artificial crises at the port and influence favourable rules to open loopholes to dump counterfeits and substandard goods in the country.

Backed by an influential ‘small traders’ lobby machinery, the schemes involve demonstrations over delayed cargo clearance and market disturbance that arm-twists the government into relaxing rules and shooting its local manufacturing in the foot with floods of counterfeits.

LOCAL INSPECTION
Last year, the government banned local inspection to facilitate smooth cargo clearance at the port but has since reversed the order, with importers now free to clear cargo locally at a lower fee and with less scrutiny.

The new order is said to have been celebrated by officers from the select port agencies after a directive last year that saw several other agencies kicked out of the ports in a surprise move meant to “improve efficiency”.

One of the key institutions kicked out of the port was the Anti-Counterfeit Agency, the body tasked with fighting counterfeits mainly coming into the country through the ports in what has complicated the fight against the multibillion shillings fakes industry.

“First, there was no backlog last year at the port, some agencies simply delayed inspecting the cargo to create the backlog when they noticed many of the goods were being flagged for counterfeits. Now most goods are going to be inspected locally and there in no anti-counterfeit agency at the port. This is well-planned scheme as you can see,” said a senior source at one of the key agencies at the port of Mombasa.