Mr Mohamed said the sectors have potential to wean the country from relying on agriculture for growth.
The government wants to establish a vibrant textile industry to tap the $380 billion European market.
He said that 50 investors from various countries had expressed interest in Kenya’s textile industry and would be visiting this month to assess the sector.
Industrialisation Secretary Adan Mohamed is betting on the textile and leather sectors to drive Kenya’s industrial revolution.
Mr Mohamed said the sectors have potential to wean the country from relying on agriculture for growth.
“We are focusing on textile, cotton and leather industries because these areas have high potential for creating employment to a huge number of Kenyans as we aim at expanding the manufacturing sector,” said Mr Mohamed.
He was speaking at the start of a four-day briefing by Cabinet Secretaries on their achievements in the past year and their future plans.
Prof Judi Wakhungu talked on a her Environment and Water docket while Principal Secretaries Cicily Kariuki and Mariam El Maawy offered briefings of the ministries of Agriculture and Land respectively.
The government wants to establish a vibrant textile industry to tap the $380 billion European market.
Mr Mohamed said he was keen on emulating countries like Bangladesh and China which have seen top fashion houses open manufacturing plants to feed their global empires through outsourcing deals.
Cotton farmers will also benefits from such deals. Mr Mohamed also said that the government was keen on making Kenya Meat Commission a vibrant entity so that the country can establish a sound leather industry from the factory.
He said that 50 investors from various countries had expressed interest in Kenya’s textile industry and would be visiting this month to assess the sector.
Kenya is majorly an agro-based economy with the sector contributing up to 24 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.
Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), the world’s second-biggest fashion retailer, plans to open a manufacturing plant in Kenya to feed its more than 3,000 stores in 53 countries.
Such deals look set to benefit local textile manufacturers who have been hit hard by cheap imports from Asia and second-hand clothes.
Statistics from the African Cotton & Textile Industries Federation show that the local textile industry peaked in 1984 with 52 mills producing over 70,000 bales and employing more than 42,000 people. Currently, 15 mills operate at a capacity of between 30 per cent and 45 per cent.
The decline of the firms has been linked to trade liberalisation policies undertaken from the 1980s.
Negative trade balance
These exposed the industry to cheaper textile and cotton imports from low-cost producers in Asia, hurting the competitiveness of local firms.
The policy change also saw imports of cheap second-hand clothes which shrunk the market for new clothes, forcing textile firms to rely heavily on the Agoa export pact.
The bulk of local textiles are exported to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) pact which allows duty-free imports of selected items from low-income countries.
The manufacturing sector’s contribution to the economy has stagnated at 10 per cent in the past six years even as the services sector — which employs relatively fewer people — continued on a steady growth path.
Aside from creating more jobs and earning foreign exchange, the manufacturing sector is critical to reversing Kenya’s negative trade balance that saw the value of imports exceed exports by Sh859 billion in 2011.
