NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 2 – Trade and Investments Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria has said the government will ban the importation of secondhand clothes, commonly known as mitumba, after plans to give people cheaper alternatives come into place.
Speaking during the Changamka Shopping Festival at KICC on Tuesday, Kuria said his ministry will strive to make more locally manufactured clothes that are cheaper to support the Buy Kenya Build Kenya initiative.
“I will work with the textile industry to ensure that we make cheaper clothes available in this market, and then we will ban mitumba,” he said.
The CS noted that second-hand clothes are not that cheap compared to locally manufactured clothes, the issue is mainly with their availability.
“The price that we sell our locally manufactured clothes to America is much lower than mitumba, so it is not a question of price but a question of availability,” the CS said.
Kuria noted that the country’s textile industry is still lagging behind, employing approximately 50,000 people, while in countries like Bangladesh the sector employs 5 million people.
The move to ban mitumba could mean a loss of jobs with two million Kenyans directly employed in the sector. The sector is also a key revenue earner for the National Government.
Kenya’s second-hand clothing imports keep rising, from Sh10 billion to Sh18 billion in the last six years.
Most of the secondhand clothing imports in Kenya come from the US and Europe but in recent years China has overtaken them followed by Poland, Germany and UAE.
A majority of households prefer to buy second-hand clothes due to fair pricing and variety, buying only new school or workplace uniforms.
According to a report on Global Production Networks of the Second-Hand Clothing Industry, four out of every five people on the continent wear second-hand clothes.
