Anti- Counterfeit Agency ( ACA ) has so far seized consignments of counterfeit products in the local markets worth sh 1.5 billion, the managing director of the state agency John Angote has said.
Angote said the agency has destroyed a half of the contraband goods which were seized from various supermarkets, retail and wholesale shops that were imported into the country by unscrupulous traders.
The contraband products include water taps, exercise and text books, electronic goods, perfumes, water heaters, and packets of tea leaves, Omo, medicines, toilet papers and biro pens.
“We have arrested quite a number of people involved in the racket of importation of the contraband products in major towns across the country following tip off from the public and taken them to court,” said Angote.
The agency, Angote said, was working in partnership with the security agencies, members of the public various government institutions to combat the vice which he observed was destroying the economy of the country.
He said they have rolled out a massive sensitization programmes across the counties on the dangers posed by imported counterfeit goods adding that they have so far trained 100 judicial and 1,000 security officers.
Angote was speaking at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital during the incineration of some of the seized contraband goods.
The ceremony was witnessed by the Principal Secretary for Trade Chris Kiptoo, his counterparts in the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Vocational and Technical Training Belio Kipsang and Dinah Mwinzi, and the hospital director Wilson Aruasa among other government officials.