Traders in second-hand clothes (mitumba) across the country have been assured that the ban on importation of the clothes will be spread over a ten (10) year period.
The East Africa Legislature Assembly (EALA) Kenyan Chapter Chairperson Nancy Abisai said that the ban will be gradual in the next ten (10) years assuring the traders that it will not be immediate.
Abisai who was speaking at the Mount Kenya University (MKU) Thika campus said that the ban is not aimed at making the traders jobless but at reviving the textile sector in the East African region.
The plan by the EAC members to have a collective ban on the importation of second-hand clothes has caused jitters among the traders in the “mitumba industry”.
“Banning the importation of Mitumba in the six countries of the EAC is an effort to save an industry that has been long viewed as extinguished. The cotton we grow is usually exported to sew the clothes that we later import here as mitumba,” said Abisai.
She insisted that it is time that East Africans had a paradigm shift and start growing cotton to produce affordable clothing. She assured the populace that there was no need to panic since the EAC countries were working on a methodology on how to revive the textile industry without killing the mitumba market and the people who solely depended on it.
Speaking at the same venue, EALA MP and former Thika Mayor, Mumbi Ng’aru said that Thika used to be a hub of cotton processing and manufacturing of clothes and had very big factories operating from there.
Ng’aru regretted the fact that all these factories closed down leaving many jobless a fact that can be attributed to the massive importation of second hand clothes.
“We are the hardest hit by the mitumba trade since it killed the more than ten textile industries that employed thousands of people in the region,” explained Ng’aru.
She called for the formulation of legislative policies that are geared towards value addition of the cotton we grew and the revival of the textile industry.
“I am fully in support of the mitumba ban and appreciate the process of reviving the textile industry to revive and redeem our economies and restore the dignity of our people,” Ng’aru said.
The EAC MP’s held lectures at MKU to sensitise the students on their activities and mandate in the integration of the member countries.