Government has stopped the import of secondhand clothes for health and economic reasons.
This is a misguided decision.
Firstly, there is no risk of contracting Covid-19 or any disease from mitumba, according to the WHO. Shipments are cleaned, fumigated and provided with a health certificate before being sent abroad. In any case, Covid-19 can only live for a few days on its own, not for months in a container.
Secondly, the mitumba ban will not revive local textile industries which collapsed due to the removal of state subsidies and protective tariffs in the 1990s. The ban will also destroy the mitumba business which employs around a million people.
Thirdly, millions of Kenyans have just lost their jobs because of the coronavirus lockdown. This brutal decision means that they now have to pay ten times as much to buy a new shirt. Is that fair at this time?
Even if the government can make an argument for a mitumba ban, this is the wrong time to do it. The majority of Kenyans still need the clean affordable clothes provided by markets like Gikomba.
Quote of the day: "I cannot think that we are useless or God would not have created us. There is one God looking down on us all."
Geronimo
The Apache warrior surrendered to the U.S. Army on March 27, 1886