Even with stringent anti-smoking rules in force since 2007, Kenyan smokers are not deterred and much less so, purveyors of counterfeit cigarettes in East Africa’s biggest economy.

And feeling the heat of the rising consumption of fake cigarettes is British American Tobacco (BAT) Kenyan operation which lost ‘substantial’ revenue last year to the illicit cigarette trade. According to Gary Fagan, managing director of BAT Kenya, illicit cigarette trade was a key factor why Kenya’s cigarette market shrunk by five per cent last year.

“We are talking of 25 million sticks or Ksh 125 million (about US Dollar 1.5 million) worth of fake cigarettes consumed in the Kenyan market last year,” Fagan told investors and the media in Nairobi last week.

In 2007, Kenya’s parliament passed the Tobacco Control Act limiting advertising and restricting smoking in public places. The move has affected BAT’s business although the company has said in the past that it welcomes the rules and that it has complied with all the requirements of the Act. 

In Video: Anti Smoking Law

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BAT estimates that the illicit cigarette market accounts for about 12 per cent of the total market consumption in Kenya. Besides eating into the company’s market share, what rattles it even more is the fact that no duty is paid on the fake products. BAT is one of the largest taxpayers in Kenya.

Some of the counterfeit cigarettes bear what appears to be genuine BAT packaging thus giving the false impression that they have emanate from the company. Only two weeks ago, Kenyan authorities destroyed a Ksh 25 million (about US Dollar 300,000) consignment of counterfeit BAT products that were intercepted by police intercepted while on transit to neighboring countries.

The key brands targeted by counterfeiters are Sportsman and Embassy Lights which are among the fastest moving.                                  
-Kingori Choto