Savannah, your Dubois Ksh. 150 foundation is smudging off your face.
The people in charge of protecting Kenyans from fake goods are not doing a brilliant job. In fact, if you have bought medicine, electronics, fertiliser, or even a pair of gold “coated” earrings in the last year, there is a decent chance you got swindled, and no one in authority will admit how bad it has become.
Globally, counterfeits are a trillion-dollar mess. Literally. Back in 2017, fake goods were worth more than the entire economy of most countries. The number is only going up. And what is worse, while all that money is flying around, governments are haemorrhaging tax revenue. That is schools, hospitals, jobs down the drain, so someone can sell you a knock-off phone charger that sets your mattress on fire.
Our love affair with counterfeits dates back to the late ’70s, when a bunch of coffee farmers were handed a bogus pesticide that killed their entire crop. That disaster should have been a wake-up call. It was not. Since then, we have managed to fill the market with dodgy medicines, fake phones, toxic food, and electricals that look like they came from a bin fire.
The Anti-Counterfeit Authority says Ksh 1.1 billion worth of fake goods have entered the market since 2014. They only managed to seize Ksh 880 million worth of that. So, yes, quite a bit is still floating about, unbothered. If you have ever wondered why your electronics do not last or your paracetamol tastes suspiciously like chalk, here is your answer.
And it is not just petty street-level stuff. Counterfeit trading was worth Ksh 70 billion by 2017. That is about the same as tourism, tea, or coffee.
The Real Problem with Fake Stuff
In case you thought the worst of it was a dodgy t-shirt or a bad pair of sunglasses, what about the fake phones? In 2018, there were over 10 million of them in Kenya. That is one in every four phones. Or worse, counterfeit medicine. At one point, fake drugs made up about a quarter of the entire pharmaceutical market. So you go to the chemist, spend real money, and end up swallowing some flour and food colouring. Meanwhile, the real manufacturers have had to start slapping scratch-off codes on everything like it is a bloody lottery ticket, just to prove their stuff is actually legit.
Why Counterfeits Keep Winning
Counterfeits thrive because there is profit to be made, rules to be dodged, and officials willing to look the other way. We have got porous borders, ports leaking, and a tangled bureaucracy. Organised criminals are not just moving counterfeit goods. They are moving people, weapons, cash, whatever is profitable. The border with Somalia? A dream for smugglers. The Port of Mombasa? A revolving door.
Meanwhile, the average Kenyan is stuck in the middle. High poverty levels, low trust in institutions, and not much wiggle room when the cheaper fake product is the only thing they can afford. Counterfeits kill innovation, rob people of honest jobs, and in some cases, end lives. One in five products on the shelf is fake. Four million people are using them. This is not a small-time hustle, it is an economic wrecking ball.
And do not forget, when manufacturers start losing money to fakes, they pull out of the market. That are fewer jobs. Fewer factories. Less tax revenue. Counterfeits in agriculture mean failed crops. Failed crops mean less food, more hunger, and fewer exports. It means GDP takes a hit, which means you are basically screwed from every angle. Meanwhile, the money from all this fake trade is often funnelled straight into criminal enterprises. Think terrorism, money laundering, political violence. That sort of stuff.
Are the Watchdogs Even Awake?
The agencies tasked with fixing this mess? They are trying, maybe. So in 2018, someone in government finally had the bright idea to slap together a task force. It is called the Inter-Agency Anti-Illicit Trade Enforcement Unit. This mash-up of a task force includes the KRA, KEBS, ACA, police, immigration, and even the president’s office.
We have the laws. We have the institutions. We even have stamps and codes and roadblocks. But the problem is not that we lack rules. It is that the people enforcing them are often asleep at the wheel, or worse, taking bribes to look away.
If Kenya’s ever going to stop being the playground for fake goods, it needs a few things. 1. Aan actual crackdown on corrupt officials, airtight cooperation between agencies, and maybe, a government that cares about ordinary people getting ripped off.
Because until that happens, counterfeiters will keep making a killing while Kenyans keep swallowing knock-off medicine and wondering why their livelihoods will not stop falling apart.