Nakuru County: Home of Fake Products
Nakuru man James Kimani, who admitted skinning and slaughtering over 1000 cats in Nakuru City in 2019 and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Nakuru Chief Magistrate Bernard Mararo convicted James Kimani after he pleaded guilty to charges of slaughtering and selling cat meat to unsuspecting customers
What you need to know:
Other incidences fake products have been impounded in Nakuru:
On February 9,2022, detectives in Nakuru seized hundreds of liters of counterfeit liquor and over 30,000 fake Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) excise stamps after raiding an illegal distillery in Elburgon, Molo.
On November 8,2020, police officers busted a fake spices manufacturing unit at Bondeni slums, within Nakuru City and netted the consignment worth Sh80,000.
From fake yoghurts, tomato sauce, biscuits, game meat and other foods, Nakuru has been taunted as the’ home of adulterated products’, thanks to a strange entrepreneurial spirit in the region.
In Nakuru, the choicest cuts from your favorite butcher might not actually be the beef you ordered.
You can easily be sold fake ice cream, alcoholic drinks, cheese or even frozen dairy desserts.
In fact, the Anti-Counterfeit Agency (ACA) ranks Nakuru second, after Nairobi in sale of counterfeit products.
“Nakuru and Nairobi have over the years emerged as the hotspots of counterfeit products in the country. Electronics, pharmaceutical products, alcoholic beverages, Agrochemicals and foods, are some of the most faked goods," said Mrs Flora Mutahi, the Anti-Counterfeits Agency chairperson, during a recent visit to Nakuru.
Game meat has also severally found its way to the dinner table.
Unscrupulous butchers are likely selling you donkey or game meat, which exposes you to the risk of contracting diseases like anthrax.
Previously, sugar containing lead and maize flour consignment containing aflatoxin have been seized in Nakuru.
Despite efforts by various government agencies to eliminate counterfeits from the market, crooked business people still sneak in fake products to the market.
For instance, on April 22, 2022, police officers and ACA officials arrested a woman who was illegally manufacturing sub-standard cosmetics at her rented house, before she distributed them for sale in Nakuru and other towns.
Acting on a tip-off, the officers cast their dragnets and arrested the woman in her house located at the heart of the informal Ponda Mali Estate.
She has since been charged in court.