Kenya’s second-hand cloth dealers kick against proposed ban by the EU

Kenya’s second-hand cloth dealers are lobbying against a proposal by France, Denmark, and Sweden to ban the export of second-hand clothes from the European Union (EU).

According to Reuters, the second-hand cloth trade in Kenya employs about 2 million people and provides their livelihood hence the protest against the proposed ban by the EU.

According to UN trade data, the EU exported 1.4 million tonnes of used textiles in 2022, more than twice what they exported in 2000. The three countries argued that much of these exported textiles when they cannot be resold end up as waste in their host countries adding to pollution.

They also propose that the EU apply the Basel Convention to used clothes, banning exports of hazardous textile waste and requiring informed consent to be obtained before importing textile waste.

Njenga denied that second-hand cloth imports contain a large batch of unusable items that end up as trash adding to pollution.

Njenga has paid a couple of diplomatic visits to people who can influence and overturn the proposed ban on the exportation of second-hand clothing by the EU.

She has met officials in Lithuania, Finland, and Sweden to argue against the proposal.

She also planned to meet officials from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade and the Directorate-General for the Environment to further push for an overturn of the proposed ban.