By DPA
Nairobi : At a bustling makeshift market in a Nairobi suburb, Kenyans of all stripes flock on a sunny morning to buy the latest in high fashion: Topshop T-shirts, Diesel jeans and Lacoste shoes among others.
The clothes are laid out neatly at some of the rickety stalls, whereas at others blouses are thrown in unwelcoming piles, proving a daunting task to sort through for any keen shopper.
Vendors yell at the top of their lungs to attract attention to their merchandise as shoppers file through the small aisles.
Used clothes markets like the one at Adam’s Arcade in western Nairobi are where most Kenyans come to fill their wardrobe.
Beyond the most recent styles, which are shipped to the East African country from trend-setting fashionistas in Europe and North America, bras and underwear – often used ones – are sold as well, offering poor Kenyans an alternative to buying them in shops and supermarkets at prices they simply can’t afford.
The sale of used underwear is banned in Kenya, because, the government says, the garments are unhygienic and harmful to its wearers. But it has been unsuccessful in fully weeding them out, as they manage to find their way to second-hand markets.
And without offering an alternative to the cheap pieces, vendors sell them anyway and people continue to purchase them.
“Do you think I can afford a 2,000-shilling (30-dollar) bra? Compared to what I can get in a store, this is nice quality. The shops are quite expensive,” said Roselyne, an unemployed Nairobi resident who did not want to give her last name.
The used clothes trade is a lucrative one in Kenya, where half the population lives on less than one dollar a day and relies on these informal markets to get dressed.
Middle-class Kenyans also make use of the cheap markets, where designer labels are sold at astoundingly low prices, but they are crucial for poorer citizens who simply have no alternative to wearing used clothes.
Although she said she prefers to buy new underwear from stores, shopper Vickie Kairo, 21, said many Kenyans have no other option.
“If you look at the economy, many women can’t afford to buy new underwear. The bottom line is it’s cheap.”
But used undergarments are a contentious good. The government vows it was trying to protect citizens by banning them.
“All standards that we write here are meant to protect consumers. They are mostly designed to ensure consumers are protected against any product that may put their health at risk,” said Jared Obewa, head of inspections at the state-owned Kenya Bureau of Standards, which prohibited the import of used undergarments in 1999.
Roselyne, holding three tan-coloured bras and debating which one to buy, disagreed with the government’s intentions.
“You can get diseases from all over. That won’t stop me from buying underwear,” she said.
“It’s true, you don’t know what kind of disease you can get from wearing used underwear,” Kairo said, but she insisted customers at the second-hand markets are warned by vendors to wash the clothes thoroughly before wearing them.
The move to outlaw the sale of bras and both male and female underwear has faced stiff opposition from pro-poor activists who argue the ban just doesn’t work.
“If the government really wants to meet the demands of poor people, it should offer support to micro-finance and small industries who are able to produce undergarments at subsidized rates,” said Angela Wauye, a programme coordinator with ActionAid Kenya, who deals with trade issues.
She said the government must step in to offer impoverished Kenyans an alternative, if only to prevent the “undignified” practice of buying underwear someone else has worn.
But for the poor, whether it is dignified or not, cheap underwear is a necessity.
“If women can’t afford the expensive underwear and the used pairs are banned,” said Wambui Carol, a vendor whose stand looked like an explosion of brassieres, with lacy lilac, satiny black and dark blue ones strewn all over, “they may go without bras and underwear entirely.”