“While exports from Kenya to US have more than doubled in value over the ten-year period under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) the product range is still limited, with only 25 – 30 product lines exported out of the possible 6,400,” Esipisu had said.
The development of the Kenyan textile industry, Kirubi said, needs to begin with the development of a local market for Kenyan textiles. “We must love what we produce locally and that way we can give a boost to investors who want to invest in this area but we cannot go on investing in textile only to export and our Kenyans thrive by wearing dead people’s clothes that are imported. I hate them. I hate second hand clothes.”
Second hand clothes might leave a bad taste in his mouth but the possibilities opened up by the US-Africa Leaders Summit do just the opposite, especially as relates to the energy sector where Kirubi has encouraged Kenyans to partner with the Americans in its generation.
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“If we do not as Africans ourselves get involved it means foreigners will come here and basically enslave us for the rest of our lives because these projects are not short term,” he underscored.
And the best way to avoid that, Kirubi concluded, is to empower its population with knowledge on how to take advantage of the economic growth opportunities presented by such engagements as the US-Africa Leaders Summit in addition to integration that would not only ease the movement of goods and services on the continent but consolidate its market base.
