Kenya’s Anti-Counterfeit Agency today held a high level consultative meeting to facilitate dialogue between government’s law enforcement agencies, the private sector, consumer organizations and civil society to forge a joint action and collaboration against counterfeits and other forms of illegal commerce.

The half day event was held at Boma hotel Nairobi was graced by the Principle Secretary for International Trade Dr. Chris Kiptoo and was attended by CEO’s and representatives from government enforcement agencies like the Kenya Revenue Authority, the Kenya Bureau of Standards among others.

The forum follows government’s commitment towards delivery of the Big 4 agenda. In his address to the launch of the Anti-Illicit trade working group, Dr. Chris Kiptoo said “Top on today’s agenda is the delivery of the manufacturing pillar. The protection and enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights is a key incentive towards growing our manufacturing sector since it promotes creativity and innovation. We have an executive order to deliver on this strategy”.

As law enforcement agencies and governments continue to struggle with the expanding shadow economy, there is need to pool in manufacturers and the consumers in the fight against this war. The forum explored on the need to establish a stakeholder framework to protect consumers, uphold the rule of law and ensures strong enforcement of intellectual property in the country.

Other deliberation was the need to capture data of counterfeiting as a crime in the National Crime Centre. “Counterfeiting should be treated for what it is: A major crime. For purposes of profiling, counterfeit crime will be captured in the national crime statistics report”. Dr. Kiptoo added. This will help generate general trends and help in finding evidence based tactics to counter this menace.

Ends………..

Tom Muteti
Chief Officer – Public Communications

About Anti-Counterfeit Agency

The Anti-Counterfeit Agency is a state corporation within the Ministry of Industry, Trade and cooperatives. It is established by the Anti-Counterfeit Act 2008 and is responsible for coordinating the Kenyan Government efforts in protection of Intellectual Property (IP) rights, including patents, designs, trademarks and copyrights. The Agency sees IP enforcement, whether civil or criminal, as crucial for innovation and economic growth, and as such supports the coordination and cooperation across the IP community to tackle counterfeiting and piracy.

Background

Combating illicit Trade

Illicit trade distorts international trade, harms the health and safety of consumers, imposes heavy burdens on regulatory and enforcement organizations, and is a significant source of revenue for transnational criminal networks and international terrorist organizations.

The globalization of production processes, coupled with new technologies which enable cheaper and higher quality production capabilities, has led to an increase in illicit trade volumes and a diversification of the product range available on the counterfeit market. Almost all industries are affected by counterfeiting, contraband and intellectual property crime.

Reliable and useful statistics on the magnitude of the illegal activity are notoriously difficult to produce due to its clandestine nature. The World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Illicit Trade recently estimated the shadow economy to be worth $650 billion with the latest figures on counterfeiting alone predicting an increase to $1.77 trillion in 2015. Up-to-date data and more cross-border information sharing is needed to develop a clearer understanding of illicit trade, the contexts which enable it, and how to combat it more effectively.

In Kenya, the Kenya Association of Manufacturers estimates that 40% of their market share is lost due to counterfeiting with other emerging costs going to policing their intellectual property. Other estimates from KAM give the loss as a result of counterfeiting at KSH 50 Billion in a year.

Counterfeiting, other than causing erosion on the brand value, reputation and goodwill of the manufacturers and owners of IP, leads to social and economic consequences resulting in huge economic losses in terms of lost taxes and revenues. It leads to diversion of funds earned therefrom to other illegal activities; counterfeit products put a threat to consumers' health and safety as well.