20 October 20261 min read

323 bags of subsidy fertiliser seized in fake brand sacks

The Anti-Counterfeit Authority seized 323 bags of fertiliser worth more than Sh1.6 million in Matungu, Kakamega, which it says was taken from the government subsidy programme and repacked as a commercial brand.

A dish of pale granular fertiliser on a white background — Photo: Suyash Dwivedi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

323

bags of fertiliser seized in Matungu on 16 October, worth more than Sh1.6 million

On 16 October the Anti-Counterfeit Authority raided a site in Matungu, Kakamega County, and seized 323 bags of fertiliser worth more than Sh1.6 million, two loaded lorries and equipment used to pack and seal bags.

Its early findings are that the fertiliser came from the government's subsidy programme and had been repacked into counterfeit bags of a commercial brand, to be sold to farmers at the full market price. Two lorry drivers were arrested, and the Authority said it was looking for others involved.

The Authority's Executive Director, Robi M. King'a, said diversion of this kind undermines the government's efforts to make farm inputs affordable.

Part of a wider problem

Earlier in October the Authority met the Fertilizer Association of Kenya to discuss subsidy fertiliser being diverted and repacked, and how fertiliser can be traced from the factory to the farm.

Why it matters

Subsidy fertiliser sold under a commercial brand competes with the genuine product, and harms the brand whose bags were copied.
The case adds to pressure for packaging that is harder to copy and for tracing fertiliser through the supply chain.
The investigation is continuing; no charges had been reported by 19 October.

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