The statement made yesterday by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga during the launch of his presidential campaign manifesto that, “mitumba are clothes from dead people” is irreverent to mitumba trade, Mitumba Consortium Association of Kenya, the 2 million Kenyans employed by this trade, and the millions of Kenyans who don the mitumba clothes.
We also take note of previous sentiments made by Deputy President William Ruto vowing to bring to an end the importation of second-hand clothes in Kenya under his presidency. The statements are sufficient grounds for concern.
The second-hand clothing industry promotes environmentally responsible consumption and contributes significantly to the Kenyan economy. In 2019, the mitumba trade paid more than Kshs.15 billion to the exchequer in taxes and duty.
Total money was raised after Raila Odinga asked Kenyans to fund his presidential election campaigns.
Origin of mitumba: Everyone has clothes to abandon, including Raila Odinga himself. The advent of mass reproduction heralded an era of ever-increasing clothing production globally. The more clothes there are, the more they change hands, spreading out geographically. With more clothes and faster-changing fashions, people purchase more of them and wear each garment for less time, hence mitumba and its contribution to environmental conservation.
- It is very unlikely that measures to undermine the second-hand clothing industry would lead to any revival in the domestic production sector for textiles.
- Kenya (and Africa) requires a more effective regulation of supply chains for second-hand clothing, which would include an expansion of sorting centers at key strategic trading hubs like Kenya. Sorting facilities will help realize Kenya’s goal of becoming among the leading high-value, high-wage, high-skill economies in Africa. It is estimated 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.
- The domestic market is highly segmented between high-income households who generally purchase new clothing, and low to middle-income consumers who predominantly purchase second-hand clothes. Kenya’s strategy should be to leverage agglomeration effects, using regulatory policy to build up its cluster of textile producers alongside second-hand clothing operators, creating capacity for long-term innovation and growth.
There have been successive attempts to shut down the second-hand clothing industry in certain countries on unfounded grounds, which has worryingly crept into Kenya through frequent fires in places like Gikomba, and soon through policies by incoming governments that are threatening the livelihood of over 2 million Kenyans who depend on Mitumba.
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. We, therefore, seek an audience with the two main Presidential candidates to fashion them with correct information.
