Trade, Investments, and Industry Cabinet Secretary (CS) Moses Kuria has disclosed that he will not ban mitumba but will make them less competitive.
Speaking on Citizen TV on Wednesday, November 2, Kuria stated that he would make people buy clothes made in Kenya at cheaper prices.
"I don’t need to ban mitumba and I will not ban mitumba but I will make mitumba not competitive. I will give people better options. I will make sure that people are able to buy clothes made in Kenya at a cheaper price. If a make Mitumba to have a lesser value proposition and I make locally manufactured clothes to be competitve, I don't believe in banning things," he stated.
The CS noted that he would link manufacturers with people from the Mitumba industry to ensure that no jobs are lost.
"I will link manufacturers and people who sell mitumba and the same people who are selling mitumba will sell clothes from manufacturers so that we don’t lose jobs. People will have money in their pockets and we’ll create jobs and involve people," Kuria said.
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The former Gatundu South MP mentioned that we have to manufacture or perish adding that it would create more jobs in the country.
"We manufacture or we perish, we export or we perish, we save to invest or we perish. We in the textile industry in Kenya, have employed 50,000 people. Bangladesh, a country that we cannot call very advanced, has got 5 million people in the textile industry. By promoting manufacturing, I will create 5 million jobs within textiles and that will address our unemployment woes," he said.
