The Ugandan Leader, President Yoweri Museveni has ordered a ban on secondhand clothing from the West, alluding that the items had originated from those who died in America or Europe.
Note that Museveni is yet to enforce the ban and would need to take more authorised steps in order to favourably impose the embargo.
The clothing ban has led to panic among traders operating in the multimillion-dollar clothing business.
A lot of people can be seen daily transversing the crowded footpaths in the open markets of Kampala, Uganda’s capital, in the search for secondhand clothing, scrutinising underwear for pairs that look new or trying on shoes in the midst of the tight crowd.
The Owino Market in Downtown Kampala has long been a go-to enclave for both the rich and poor people searching for affordable but quality-made used clothes, cementing the perception that Western fashion is superior to what is made at home.
These garments are usually thrown away by Europeans Americans alike and are afterwards, shipped to African countries by middlemen.
It’s a very lucrative business, with some two-thirds of individuals in seven countries in East Africa having bought at least a portion of their clothes from the secondhand clothing market, according to a 2017 U.S. Agency for International Development study (the most recent research with such details).
However despite the popularity, secondhand garments are facing mounting pushback in the country.
President Yoweri Museveni, a semi-authoritarian leader who has been in power since 1986, had announced in August that he was outlawing imports of used clothing, with the opinion that the garments were coming “from dead people.”
“When a white person dies, they gather their clothes and ship them to Africa,” Museveni had been reported to have said.
Trade authorities have yet to enforce the president’s order as it meeds to be backed by a legal measure such like an executive order.
Other African governments are not left behind as they are also attempting to stop the importations, saying that the business amounts to dumping and that it damages the growth of local textile industries.
The East African Community trade bloc comprising of Burundi, Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, has suggested blocking imports of used apparel since 2016.
But, member states have not enforced it at the same pace as a result of the pressure from Washington.
In Uganda, the president’s order has led to panic among the used-clothing traders, for whom such a ban, if and when implemented, spells doom.
They sell used garments in scores in large open-air markets across the country of about 45 million people, at roadside stalls s and even in shops in malls where it’s possible to buy secondhand clothes being peddled as brand new.
