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Kenya’s Textile Workers Say Chinese Imports Threaten Industry

Kenya’s Textile Workers Say Chinese Imports Threaten Industry

From All Africa

Textile workers and business owners in Kenya complain that the import of cheap goods from China and second-hand textile goods from other countries are threatening their industry and suppressing the number of good manufacturing jobs available to Kenyan workers.

The owners want the Kenyan goverment to control the flow of imports into the marketplace and to tax these imported goods.

Individual merchants are feeling the impact of Chinese imports. In downtown Nairobi, some clothing vendors are shifting to Turkey and elsewhere for textile goods because they say their customers complain about the quality in the current flood of Chinese textiles and the customers don’t like the lack of variety and color in the Chinese products.

Charles Maina, a Kenyan vendor, said these days he gets garments from Turkey after his customers complained about the Chinese clothes.

“What I would like the government to do is to nurture the local industry so that we can have our local designs which we sell locally and this will create employment for youths and we will grow our [Kenyan] economy,” he said.

Read more at AllAfrica.com.