Related Keywords: AGOA, anti-dumping measures, cotton farming, cotton sector, EPZ textile companies, Kenyan textile industry, labour intensive value chain, liberalisation policies, mitumba, Rivatex, second hand clothes, WTO
Kenyan textile industry was flourishing in the 1980s before the influx of ‘mitumba’ into the country. Companies such as Rivatex offered jobs and clothed Kenyans in new clothes while Cotton farming in Nyanza and Western gave farmers a livelihood and provided cotton for the sector. This labour intensive value chain employed many Kenyans and significantly contributed to the fiscal revenue through taxes payable by the companies. Liberalisation policies followed a short while later and killed the sector.
