Mitumba Consortium Association of Kenya

An evidence-based comprehensive study that explores the future of Kenya’s clothing industry and creates a blueprint for uniquely African growth, concludes that the country’s second-hand clothing trade (Mitumba) and its local apparel manufacturing can coexist and complement each other.

The last piece in this five-part series on the twin subjects of the second-hand clothing in Africa and that of post-consumer textile waste in the content emphasises that the two are, of course, related, but not in the way that Western activists would like us to believe.

One of the many African countries that has been repeatedly mentioned in the swathe of Western media reports about the impact of the second-hand clothing trade is Kenya. But the sector is huge in the country in its spread, and mitumba touches the lives of millions. Yet, the opinion of the Mitumba Consortium Association of Kenya (MCAK) has largely gone unheard. The Chairperson of the MCAK, Teresia Wairimu Njenga, tells texfash that much of what abounds is misinformation.