Mitumba

Mitumba, or second-hand clothes, may not seem specifically a squatter issue. But all across Africa, the poor survive wearing western cast-offs. Most of my friends in Kibera bought second-hand stuff because the price was right. And some had businesses retailing the cast-offs in local markets. They would buy bales of used clothing downtown at the massive Gikomba market and, with a tiny mark-up, make a profit re-selling in Kibera. This article from the East African Standard shows that the government has raised the per-kilo tax on mitumba -- a move that is causing some wholesale prices to spike upwards 50 percent.

While it may be true, as a merchant tells the Standard, that the government's policy is counterproductive, and is "rendering millions of self-employed people jobless," the issue is complex. Kenya had a reasonably thriving needle trade until deeply discounted mitumba blanketed the country and priced most of the local manufacturers out of business. It would be hard to argue with the tariffs if the government was seriously attempting to rebuild this shattered industry instead of simply siphoning off money from a lousy economy. But that's a big if.

And there's another issue here: It's likely that the bulk of mitumba items being sold around Africa were donated by Americans and Europeans who thought they were making charitable contributions to the poor rather than stoking a profitable industry. Which means that there are most likely brokers in the U.S. and Europe making money on this trade too. That's a real scandal.