The Anchor October-November 2010 stories

OPINION

Harsh penalties need

to stop counterfeits dealers

The recent statistics indicating that illegal trade deprives the Government of Kenya Sh20 billion annually in lost revenue and at the same time denying manufacturers a staggering Sh50 million and in the true essence of the word, is shocking and heart breaking to many Kenyans.

Manufactures are the biggest losers in the whole game as their prospects are shattered and their dreams not realized. The billions lost are vital to steering economy of this country. The manufacturing industry falling under the domain of Industrialization is one of fundamental units that make up the back-bone of this country. With this back-bone experiencing hick-ups, a paralysis in the economy becomes inevitable.

According to deliberations and discussions that ended the other day in regional Anti-Illicit Trade Conference in Nairobi that brought together all stake-holders from five East Africa Community (EAC) countries it became clear that strict laws need to be put in place to curb the menace.

In essence, the leopard is as dead as death itself without its clawing capacity. The laws to be formulated soon should provide for strict and harsh penalty for perpetrators regardless of their position in society.

The best law in this jungle therefore, is to annihilate the enemy and you will have your way. In this instance, especially in this era when the EAC bloc is becoming a force to reckon with around the globe, doing away with this practice would be a big milestone to attain the objectives of Common Market Protocol signed recently.

In strict sense of word, unity is strength, and in this regard, to ensure the region remains safe hub for legitimate and genuine business activities, all stake-holders should work together. Following the drafting of the EAC Anti- Counterfeit Bill, the EAC Customs Management Act, and another Bill focusing on intellectual property rights implementation of the above three bills should be the core task of  all stake-holders to end the menace.

Homogeneous law across the bloc of EAC is vital as it is necessary to bring the unscrupulous business dealers into book. Kenya, where the practice is rampant, and consequently having enacted the Anti-Counterfeits Bill, should be in the fore-front in fighting the menace. Apart from inspectors confiscating the goods from the various quotas, those who engage in the vice should pay dearly for it.

Heavy fine is one of the parameter as well as long jail sentence. This would cat as deterrence, for indeed impunity has found home in Kenya due to dysfunctional justice Systems- both police and judiciary and to some extent the executive and legislative arms of the republic.

It’s high time the vice is be fought with all weapons in the vicinity including pumping in enough financial resources, recruiting able and competent labour and in-forming the public of counterfeit goods so as to alert the authority in case the vice is taking place.

More so, as one of the measures, a media centre should be formed to enable the citizens to report the menace to the agency or any other authority as the consumers are the ones who are at the receiving end.

Let all deliberations, discussions and de-bates recently held and one to take place in future be of great importance to coming up with a concrete action plan to steer the economic growth of this region. These, apart from attracting viable in-vestment would lead to the region competing equally with other blocs around the country.

In nutshell let the laws be a sharp nail in the face of the unscrupulous traders to foster the economic growth index in the region.

Joseph Mambili.

 P.O. Box 30175-00100,

 Langata, Nairobi.