Seven arrested in crackdown on cooking oil counterfeits in Mombasa

A government agency has arrested seven people and is in pursuit of four others linked to the processing of counterfeit cooking oil at Shimanzi in Mombasa County.

The Anti-Counterfeit Authority (ACA) said it seized documents that will help in establishing the owners of the business that is suspected to have been going on for months.

ACA and other security agents have intensified a crackdown in yards and go-downs in Mombasa's Shimanzi area where it suspects most counterfeits are re-packaged before sold.

Yesterday, the Director of Enforcement Mr Yusuf Ahmed said the operators of the yard were illegally using 13 local brands of cooking oil.

They said they converted the yard from handling sludge from ships to processing fake cooking oil believed to be on local shelves.

“We have arrested seven people,, and we are following leads that may lead to the arrest of four others,” he said.

He said they had seized property worth more than Sh100 million at the yard that was initially used to process sludge oil from the port.

A multi-agency team first stormed the yard that is also used for parking petroleum tankers on Sunday when they arrested the seven people.

The expansive yard is also littered with many metallic drums with dirty oil and oil buildings where the processing of cooking oil allegedly took place.

On Sunday, ACA also seized a huge amount of the counterfeit cooking oil and took samples for testing to establish what it contained.

The yard was yesterday put under tight security officers from ACA, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and others picked up various items to aid them in the investigation.

“We have accessed documents from here that will help us establish the owners of the business. We have collected receipts, invoices and vouchers that will help us in our investigations,” said Ahmed.

He said the authority was targeting wholesalers to establish the extent of the distribution of the cooking oil in the market that is believed to be unfit for human consumption.

ACA also said it will work closely with companies whose patent rights were violated by the manufacturers of the counterfeit products.

Ahmed said they were zeroing in on on three areas in Mombasa County where they believe are used to make or store counterfeit goods.

He said the fight against counterfeit products was aimed at safeguarding the safety and health of consumers in the country.

“We want Kenyans to be aware about the safety of the cooking oil that they consume and report about suspicious products,” he said.

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