TALKING POINT
HOW THE “BANDIT
ECONOMY” AFFECTS
YOU AND YOUR
BUSINESS
By Boniface Ngahu
I
t was the Kenyan Chief Justice
Dr. Willy Mutunga who
got fed up with using smart
language that when he was in a
trip abroad he stated that Kenya is
a bandit economy. I didn’t like his
admission at first because as the top
administrator of justice, making such
an admission is quite worrying. I was
also worried that he might scare away
both local and foreign investors.
market or bandit economy as he
called it. Currently there are cases in
court about hundreds of millions of
shillings that have allegedly changed
hands to skew judgments.
Later I started appreciating that
probably he has been frustrated
by the bandit economy to a level
that he couldn’t keep quiet any
longer. His admission also implied
that justice has a price in the black
The talking point here is that the
bandit economy affects all of us in
bigger ways than we imagine and we
need to be aware of it for the sake of
business planning and understanding
the market landscape.
The big question is this, if the Chief
justice is frustrated how about
ordinary citizens? Corporate citizens?
Manufacturers? Businesses? to name
but a few.
‘‘The big question is this, if the Chief justice
is frustrated how about ordinary citizens?
Corporate citizens? Manufacturers?
Businesses? to name but a few. The talking
point here is that the bandit economy affects
all of us in bigger ways than we imagine
and we need to be aware of it for the sake of
business planning and understanding the
market landscape.’’
18 MAL 12/16 ISSUE
Brands are losing as much as 40% of
Their Market Share to the “Bandit
Economy”
When you hear the name Bandit
what comes to your mind? That is a
common question in brand research
that is meant to understand the
brand association. The word bandit
has not been at top of mind, this is
compared to the time of Shiftas in
Northern Kenya before the turn of
the century.
This column recently featured the
issue of counterfeits inspired by a
campaign by Philips the electric
bulbs company with the copy line,
“let’s get real about fake”. This bandit
economy issue is inspired by the
comments from the Chief Justice and
the fact that Copy Cat just celebrated
their 30 years in service meaning
that copying is here to stay (pun
intended).
According to a study by the Kenya
Association of Manufacturers their
members lose about 40% of their
market share to the bandit economy
who fake their products.
I don’t want to say that this happens