A slick counterfeit flour racket that has been flooding Kenyan kitchens with fake maize flour has been dismantled after detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) raided a godown in Canaan area, near Infinity Industrial Park in Kasarani Sub-County.
Acting on credible intelligence, detectives stormed the premises and unearthed a full-blown repackaging operation, walking away with thousands of counterfeit packets and seven suspects in tow.
Investigations established that the godown had been transformed into a covert factory of fraud, where assorted maize flour brands were being illegally repackaged and redistributed under fake labelling, deceiving unsuspecting consumers into buying products that were not what they claimed to be.
Caught in the dragnet were Felix Kiprop, an employee of SARA Flour Brand; Cynthia Nakoli, a salesperson attached to the same brand; loaders Joseph Kariuki and Victor Omondi Opiyo; driver Daniel Ngugi; and Maria Ngui and Samuel Kimilu, who were all apprehended at the scene as the operation unravelled.
Detectives recovered 3,682 packets of a popular corn maize flour brand, valued at approximately Kshs 312,120, alongside hundreds of packets of three other well-known flour brands, with the combined value of the counterfeit stash running into hundreds of thousands of shillings.
The scene told the story of a well-oiled counterfeiting enterprise: stacks of empty packaging bearing the branding of several genuine maize flour companies, a Hyundai lorry, Registration No. KBR 092K, caught red-handed being loaded with the illicit products, and an array of industrial processing and packaging machinery, weighing equipment, bag-sealing tools, and date and batch marking stamps used to imprint false product information onto fake packaging, all pointing to a syndicate built to deceive on an industrial scale.
Raising particular alarm among investigators was a stash of discarded one-kilogram packaging bearing a close resemblance to a well-known maize flour brand. A representative of the affected brand who rushed to the scene confirmed that while the packaging bore a striking resemblance to his company’s branding, it may not have been genuinely manufactured by the company, since the brand does not produce one-kilogram packets, an admission that only deepens suspicion of a deliberate scheme to piggyback on a trusted name.
Representatives of the affected brands have since pledged to present themselves for verification, while the Anti-Counterfeit Authority (ACA) has been roped in to sample the recovered products for further analysis, as the full scale of the racket comes under probe.
The seven suspects are currently in custody undergoing processing pending arraignment, while the recovered items have been detained as exhibits.
The DCI reaffirms its unwavering commitment to combating counterfeit trade and safeguarding Kenyan consumers from fraudulent and potentially harmful products.
