Making the announcement at a textile stakeholders’ forum in Eldoret, trade cabinet secretary Moses Kuria said the new tax would discourage Kenyans from relying on imported apparel and encourage them to buy indigenously-produced clothes.

The decision would benefit domestic cotton farmers, textile manufacturers and traders in the long term.

Imported clothes should be a luxury and not the main source of clothes for Kenyans, he said.

He said he was aware of opposition from Mitumba traders. "I agree with Mitumba traders because we have not given them an alternative. There are no cheaper locally produced clothes for them to sell," he was quoted as saying by Kenyan media reports.

The textile sector is broken, employing only 50,000, when it has the potential to employ millions, he lamented.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)