Halliday Finch and Kenya’s Anti-Counterfeit Agency deliver essential training to Law Enforcement Agencies in Nairobi

Halliday Finch and Kenya’s Anti-Counterfeit Agency deliver essential training to Law Enforcement Agencies in Nairobi

Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) are trained to recognize illegal goods at the ports of entry as part of a global strategy to combat the counterfeiting of brands, a practice that has caused more than 100,000 deaths this year alone in Africa.

  • Kenya’sAnti Counterfeit Agency (ACA) has opened 2 new satellite offices at Jomo Kenyatta international Airport and the Inland Container Depot (ICD) – both frequently used ports of entry used by the counterfeiters.
  • On 4thOctober, Halliday Finch and the ACA held a joint training session to ensure LEAs based at these new offices can easily identify counterfeited brands and ensure they do not enter the country
  • The ACA Executive Director, Elema Halake, stressed the importance of working together to tackle this illicit trade which is currently estimated to account for between 5% and 7% of world trade and rising rapidly.

Mr  Halake, addressed attendees and noted “the importance of working as a team to improve the economy and protect the Kenyan consumers whilst at the same time protecting business sustainability through controlling and combating counterfeited goods”. Mr Halake’s points were further endorsed by Mr Julius Ndegwa MBS, EBS. Halliday Finch’s Executive Chairman and former Director of Operations in the Kenyan Police Service.

Mr Ndegwa gave special recognition to Kenya’s Law Enforcement Agencies and thanked them “for allowing the time for the Halliday Finch team to carry out the product training”. He added that this training “will give additional tools in the armoury to the fight against counterfeit products coming into Kenya”.

Mr Ndegwa and Mr Halake both endorsed Halliday Finch’s Portwatch Programme. This is the first of its kind on the continent,  and acts as a 24/7/365 information service that LEAs can call upon to verify whether a product is counterfeit. To date it has trained hundreds  of LEAs across Africa.

During the training, George Earle, Head of Brand Training at Halliday Finch, circulated samples of counterfeited brands such as Hewlett Packard, Canon and Epson and gave critical insights into the different shipping methods used by counterfeiters.

George noted that the “training ensures the LEAs are aware of all the methodologies used by the counterfeiters, thus making sure we make it as difficult as possible for them to do their illegal work”.