Caroline Karugu: Phasing out Mitumba will promote textile industry

Azimio la Umoja One Kenya party deputy chief agent Caroline Karugu has shed light on how the outfit intends to improve Kenya's  textile industry and promote local manufacturing should party leader Raila Odinga win the presidential election in August.

In an interview with Citizen TV, Karugu  highlighted that an Azimio government will gradually phase out second hand clothes to promote the manufacture and consumption of Kenyan made clothes.

”This is an issue that we will deal with transitionally, nobody plants cotton today and uses it on the same day," she said.

“The first thing is to make Kenyans understand that by being in the second hand business, they are denying their children the opportunity to be in a growing value chain in the textile industry," she said.

Karugu also expressed optimism that Kenya can address graft locally without having to ask for assistance abroad.

She made the remarks in response to utterances made by Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) CEO Kwame Owino who opined that the country's next government will need to employ a more radical approach in order to combat the vice. 

Karugu however says that Kenya is not short of individuals who can willingly and selflessly help the government identify and mitigate all loopholes corrupt individuals use to abuse public resources.