Billion shilling government start up fails to stop fake drugs in Kenya

A new billion shilling government bureau in Kenya is failing to tackle counterfeit goods, says the Business Daily in an uncompromising editorial.

The Anti-Counterfeit Agency was set up to tackle the huge trade in fakes, which is said to cost local manufacturers 50 billion shillings in lost revenue every year. Yet the newspaper says that Kenyans “are yet to see or feel any action against producers of fake goods which continue to find their way into the Kenyan market.”

Governments cannot solve problems by simply throwing around more taxpayers’ money, and this appears to be a perfect example. IPN has argued that introducing new regulations and regulators is no use in the battle against fakes if cases do not proceed swiftly and fairly through the courts. In this case it is worrying that more actions against counterfeiters are not being taken.