Treasury secretary Henry Rotich has slapped imported clothes and shoes with higher import duty to protect local textile companies and create jobs for young people. Textiles and footwear will now be subject to an import duty of $5 per kilo (previous $0.2 per kg) or 35 per cent, or whichever is higher. The average price of imported second hand clothing is Sh96,132 a tonne, and the provisional value of total secondhand clothing imported last year is more than Sh5.3 billion.
“Our textile and footwear sectors are closing down due to increased unfair competition from cheap imported textiles and footwear,” said Mr Rotich in the 2017-2018 Budget in Parliament.
