Breathe new life into sector, say cotton farmers

Shadrack Kiptanok at his farm in Kapsiya village in Salawa Baringo County on August 22, 2015. [Kipsang Joseph/Standard]

Kenya’s textile industry was once considered progressive and was the second largest employer after the public service in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Thirty years later, the industry is a pale shadow of its former self after several textile companies closed down, leading to more than 500,000 Kenyans being rendered jobless. Currently, the industry has less than 5,000 employees.