President Uhuru Kenyatta, his Tanzanian counterpart John Magufuli, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame have agreed to have a plan implemented in a stretch of three years, giving the mitumba traders a grace period to year 2018, according to an article in Daily Nation digital news on Friday.
The temporary relief comes in the backdrop of what would have been a blow to hundreds of Nakuru mitumba clothes and shoes traders who risked a possible closure of their business if the policy on industrialisation could have been adopted by the East Africa Community.
In an earlier article carried online by the Nation media had pointed out that importation of used clothes and shoes will be outlawed in East Africa once the region’s heads of State adopt the Industrialisation Policy that will also restrict importation of used motor vehicles.
The policy that seeks to transform the manufacturing sector later reviewed and agreed upon by the Heads of State Summit in Arusha, Tanzania, this month.
According to the article, if the ban was to be effected the region would be like other developed countries, an industrial block of higher level of production quality and manufacturing practices.
This is now a relief to traders in Nakuru where the mitumba business has thrived as means of income to many youth.