Revealed: The faces behind fake cement trade

Athi River in Machakos County is the country’s cement hub.

Large and small cement producers are busy at work in the expansive dusty plains, churning out tonnes of the commodity that is key for the country.

But so are unscrupulous businesses, which counterfeit and adulterate products from legitimate cement manufacturers, compromising the quality of the product.

So brazen are the rogue businesses that operate right under the noses of the legitimate players.

When Financial Standard visited the area, at the gates of two large cement manufacturers located at Athi River, were retailers in makeshift kiosks selling what appeared to be genuine cement and bearing different brands, duping consumers.

An industry source, who agreed to walk us through the landmines that consumers are unaware of when buying cement, said counterfeiting and adulteration are just some of the numerous challenges that consumers should be worried about when it comes to cement quality. 

While counterfeiting is perpetrated by outsiders, the blame for substandard products is pinned on cement firms, with our source indicating that rarely does compliance to standards go above 50 per cent, while most of the bags are underweight.  

At the kiosks outside the gates of the cement firms, the source discloses that while some of the bags of cement might be genuine, many are not.

Supporting the kiosks is a bigger operation, where genuine cement is mixed with other materials, mostly pozzolana, to increase the volume before being repackaged in cement bags and sealed to resemble what leaves the cement factories of the genuine manufacturers.

The cement industry estimates that the cement produced in this illegal manner accounts for between three to five per cent of the cement in the market, but there is a risk that this could grow if the problem is not nipped in the bud.

This is considering factors such as the price sensitivity among many Kenyans, who tend to go for lower-priced products.

“They will go for the cheapest cement and this is a risk to any Kenyan. We should not lose lives because of somebody counterfeiting the cement. If we do not act now, they will become bigger than some of the cement companies,” said the source.

Counterfeiting and adulteration of cement formed the basis of an early September meeting between the Anti-Counterfeit Authority (ACA) and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), during which there was an agreement to form a committee to look into the issue.

At the meeting, Mohit Kapoor, the chair of KAM’s Cement Manufacturing subsector committee, presented a memorandum on the rise in cement adulteration and re-packaging concerns in the market.

This trend, the manufacturers said, not only compromises safety standards but also poses a direct threat to over 10,000 jobs in the cement subsector. 

“Kenya’s nine cement manufacturers produce over 14 million metric tonnes of cement annually, and we cannot allow illicit trade to jeopardise this crucial industry,” said Mr Kapoor, who is also the chief executive of Bamburi Cement.

He also highlighted the dangerous consequences of substandard cement in construction, pointing to the increase in building collapses across the country.

Dr Robi Njoroge, executive director, ACA, in responding to the matter, underscored the urgency of a multi-stakeholder approach in combating these illegal practices.

“We must address this problem collectively, involving not just government bodies but also the private sector and consumers. The fight against counterfeit cement is not just an industry issue—it’s a national safety concern,” said Dr Njoroge.

He further stressed that repackaging is an illegal activity that poses severe risks as it undermines product integrity and violates intellectual property rights.

“Repackaging is particularly harmful in sectors like cement where product quality directly impacts public safety. This illegal practice must be stopped,” he said.

ACA said following the meeting with cement manufacturers, there was an agreement to form a joint committee that is supposed to help with enforcement and increase public awareness. The committee is yet to take shape.

An ACA insider told Financial Standard that subsequent investigations by law enforcement showed that it may be a case of repackaging of cement sneaked from factories in what pointed to insiders working with the unscrupulous traders.

“What investigations show is that there are instances where a lorry will go to collect cement inside the factory and what is recorded as leaving the factory is, for instance, 50 bags, but in reality, 55 bags left the factory. There are also cases of spilt cement, which is sneaked out of the factories and repackaged,” said the source, pointing to the thinking that the authorities think the arguments by cement manufacturers may not hold water.

Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) in a recent report said counterfeiting and adulteration are among the factors that have contributed to the proliferation of low-quality cement in the market.

The Kebs report shows an extremely low level of compliance, which stood at 63.4 per cent as of December 2023. While low, this was a major improvement from a low of 38.1 per cent recorded in February 2022. 

“This meant that for every 10 bags of 50-kilogramme cement in the market, six did not meet the standards. Also, note that the poor quality cement is mostly what individual Kenyans buy to build their homes since they cannot test for quality.

Firms undertaking construction of mega projects have testing capability or outsource this function to companies with laboratories for testing… this kind of cement cannot be supplied to such firms,” said the source.

Kebs noted that some of the factors that could be contributing to low levels of compliance include the use of poor-quality raw materials, including clinker and inadequate process controls. 

The standards body also said manufacturers could be taking shortcuts as they try to lower the cost of production and chase higher profits.

Other factors that could be contributing to the low-quality cement finding its way into the market, according to Kebs, include gaps in supply chain transparency, counterfeiting and adulteration as well as lack of control on packaging materials, which gives counterfeiters and adulterators access to cement bags bearing the brands of major manufacturers.

Our source, who is privy to testing by some cement firms and major cement consumers, that sample and test products regularly, said they have in certain instances seen tests that show month-on-month compliance levels at between 30 and 40 per cent.

There are, however, instances when compliance goes high, at about 70 per cent.

“There is no time compliance has been over 60 per cent. In most cases, compliance has mostly been below 50 per cent,” said the source. 

Cement comes in three different compressive strengths or classes, with the minimum being 32.5 megapascals (MPa), which is commonly used in house construction; 42.5MPa, which is of medium strength and 52.5MPa is the strongest and used in mega infrastructure projects.

“In the strength class of 32.5, we have seen people making that cement with strengths of 25, 20, and 15MPa. It is not meeting the required threshold, possibly because they use a lot of pozzolana so that they can use less clinker as they try to cut costs… the end result could be disastrous,” said the source.

“This means that margins are high. People are making a hell lot of money because of reducing the clinker content. But inasmuch as they are selling what can be termed as trash,  their prices at the market are almost the same as those of the legitimate producers. You will find a difference of Sh50 to Sh80 in retail prices.”

The source added that in the marketplace, manufacturers who take shortcuts can win over consumers, who are price-sensitive but also cannot test the quality of cement. 

A 2020 report by the National Construction Authority (NCA), said the collapse of buildings in the country is due to the use of substandard construction materials.

According to the report, 28 per cent of collapsed buildings were due to substandard materials, which is the second-biggest cause of collapse in buildings after poor workmanship at 35 per cent.

The report, however, does not single out cement and lumps cement together with other materials such as steel but notes that incorrect concrete was among the poor quality materials that contribute to a great extent.

While it has made efforts to look into cement standards, Kebs’ foot on the ground is thought not to be so strong. 

Players note that it should make its strong presence in the market felt by cracking the whip on rogue players. They point out Ghana, which last year shut down three cement firms for the production of substandard cement. It has this year threatened to take more action on non-compliant players.

The Ghana Standards Authority said following research and testing, it had found out that some particular players had been producing substandard cement.

“We have closed three of them and (we) can assure you that in the coming days, a lot more will be closed down. If there is one thing we will not compromise on, it is quality,” said the country’s standards body. 

Clinker is usually at the centre of the games that cement producers play with Kenyan lives. A key ingredient in the production of cement, the quality of clinker that cement producers use is of concern.

Clinker is made of predominantly limestone and other materials, including iron ore and bauxite. Clinker is then ground and mixed with gypsum and pozzolana to make cement, with clinker accounting for about 70 per cent of the production cost of cement.

Locally, out of the about 10 cement producers, only four have clinker production capacity. This means the other manufacturers have to rely on competition for this key raw material.

In the past, they had the option of importing, but the cost of imports has significantly gone up following the imposition of the 17.5 per cent export and investment promotion levy on imported clinker, meaning for the companies that do not have local clinker production capacity, they have to ensure that whatever clinker they get, whether from local producers or imported, is maximised.

This, our source pointed out, there is a high likelihood that the compromise starts from there, which could be by the clinker producers not selling you the best of their product or the grinders trying to stretch whatever clinker they get.

“Clinker is about 70 per cent of the cost of cement production, if this is controlled by competition, they might not want you to grow,” said the source.