The second hand clothing trade in Kenya supports majority of the citizens by creating employment and providing affordable clothing especially for the youth who are left to live hand to mouth due to lack of job opportunities in the country.

Half of the population in Kenya are low income earners who depend on this trade to sustain their livelihood. A single importer of second hand clothes creates employment for averagely ten people without counting the myriad of wholesalers and market traders who buy from the particular importer.

In a country whose unemployment rate is fairly high second hand clothing gives unemployed people and unskilled citizens a chance to  be self employed. It has also allowed many women in Kenya to earn a living as they account for 60 percent of the second hand clothes trading population as the trade is non gendered and accessible to anyone regardless of lack of any formal training or capital. The youth of Kenya also highly benefit from this trade as it allows them to fend for themselves and allows them to veer away from criminal activities that they would be doomed to due to lack of job opportunities.

Availability of affordable second hand clothes has allowed very poor people that is majority of Kenyans living  both in urban and rural areas to clothe themselves and their families who in the absence of the trade will not be able to afford any clothing at all. 

Lastly the trade provides a a significant source of revenue for the government of Kenya through import duties that are increased nearly every year imposed on the imported goods considering that 177,160 tonnes alone of the second hand clothes were imported in 2019. Other ways it benefits the  government includes revenue collected from clearance fees from the ports and trading licences paid to the city council by the nationwide mitumba traders.

The continued instigation by the government of Kenya that the second hand clothing industry is killing the country's textile and clothing industry needs to be stopped as this is  too simplistic a view to quote the article ''Textiles in Africa'' .  The second hand clothing industry has had and will continue to have (when the ban is lifted) a positive impact on the people and economy of this country by alleviating poverty and reducing unemployment.