Mitumba shopkeepers have requested an audience with Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga in response to remarks he made that appeared to be critical of Kenya’s second-hand clothing business.
The Mitumba Consortium Association (MCA) also wants to meet with DP William Ruto to discuss his proposals to halt mitumba importation and develop the local textile industry if he becomes president.
The group, led by Teresia Wairimu, stated that hurting the second-hand clothes business would not be likely to resuscitate the local textile industry.
“To kill the mitumba trade and promote textile is to give with one hand and take away with the other. We regret that the former PM and the Deputy President have relied on false information about second hand clothes,” Wairimu said.
“We therefore seek audience with the two main presidential candidates to fashion them with correct information,” she added.
Attempts to shut down the mitumba industry in Kenya, according to Wairimu, are based on spurious grounds.
She claims that the second-hand clothes sector promotes environmentally conscious consumption and makes a substantial contribution to Kenya’s economy.
Mitumba commerce, she claimed, paid more than Sh15 billion in taxes and excise duty to the exchequer in 2019.
“Africa requires a more effective regulation of supply chains for second-hand clothing, which would include an expansion of sorting centres at key strategic trading hubs like Kenya.”
Wairimu explained that sorting facilities will help realise Kenya’s goal of becoming among leading high-value, high-wage, high-skill economies in Africa.
She said estimates indicate that each facility will directly create up to 500 jobs with further employment in related sectors.
“If all second-hand clothes were sorted in Kenya rather than abroad, Kenya would gain up to 14,000 additional jobs.”
According to Wairimu, Kenya’s low to middle-income consumers predominantly purchase second-hand clothes.
Kenya should therefore bank on this high population and build a cluster of textile producers who together with second-hand clothing operators, would create capacity for long-term innovation and growth, Wairimu said.
