The Kenya Anti-Counterfeit Authority (ACA) boss has been caught up in a saga linking him to deliberate purchase of fake number plates.
It has emerged that the head of ACA, Mr John Akoten, gave his driver Sh2,500 to procure fake number plates for a Volkswagen Passat issued to the agency by the government.
The number plates were illegally acquired along Kirinyaga road weeks after Akoten was appointed to head the authority in 2013.
The dubious acts came to light after the vehicle was involved in a road crash and a committee was formed to find out how the accident happened.
Findings by the probe committee indicated that Mr Akoten authorised the used of fake number plates while conducting private business with the government vehicle.
According to the report released on Monday, the vehicle was involved in a road crash along Forest Road in 2014 on its way to Mombasa, where the driver was to pick Akoten's wife.
The vehicle is alleged to have been used in the illegal ferrying of Akoten's relatives to graduation ceremonies apart from being used on weekends.
The ACA boss told the committee investigating the crash that he had nothing to do with the fake number plates, although his driver admitted that he purchased the plates on his (Akoten) behalf.
“I did not fake the number plates, I never realised that the vehicle had private number plates although I had used it for more than eight months before it crashed,” Akoten told the investigating committee.
The fake number plate is said to have been a well-guarded secret between Akoten and his driver identified as Makhoha.
Mr Akoten has been the chair of the authority for more than three years since the parastatal was formed in 2010 to subdue the multibillion-shilling counterfeit industry.
A new report has revealed that fake number plates are manufactured along Kirinyaga Road in Nairobi by ex-convicts who learned the trade while in prison.
