Manufacturers vow to fight ban on plastic bags

A man walks with a polythene bag carrying his goods between the buses along Nairobi's Kenyatta avenue.Kenya's government has announced it will ban the manufacture and import of all plastic bags used for commercial and household packaging. PHOTO/ELVIS OGINA (NAIROBI) MARCH 15TH,2017

Manufacturers have vowed to use all means to ensure that the Government’s ban on plastic bags does not take effect in September.

Through the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), they have faulted the Government for not clarifying whether the ban will affect carrier bags only or also the use of plastic bags in industrial packaging.

“The ban as currently worded in the gazette will affect industrial packaging. The National Environment Management Authority (Nema) has stated only through unofficial channels that they are targeting plastic carrier bags, and not industrial packaging. However, this clarification has not been made through a re-gazettement despite KAM’s repeated requests for the clarification to be made,” said KAM Chief Executive Phyllis Wakiaga in a statement.

She said discussions between manufacturers and the Government on plastic bags has been ongoing for more than 10 years.

An agreement was reached in 2007 to levy excise tax on the bags, whose proceeds were to be used for waste management.

But the Government has not applied the tax for the intended purpose, claimed Ms Wakiaga.

In March, after Environment Cabinet Secretary Judi Wakhungu gazetted the ban, KAM petitioned Parliament to have it nullified.

Last week, Prof Wakhungu and Nema Director General Geoffrey Wahungu appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Natural Resources to counter the petition and affirm the ban.

Wakhungu accused KAM of exaggerating figures on the number of jobs that could be lost from the ban.

“I want to assure the public that the figures being put by KAM of the job loss are exaggerated and they know the truth as we have been engaging over time. The number of jobs that will be created will be more than those lost,” she said.