Kamukunji MP Yusuf Hassan has said the mitumba trade is not a problem.
According to him, Kenya can engage in various economic strategies to boost the economy.
"There are many things we must do to be globally competitive, to export more, to create more jobs and to do better economically," Hassan said on Friday.
Earlier this week, Trade CS Moses Kuria said the government has plans to increase consumption of locally made clothes hence decreasing the number of Kenyans buying mitumba (secondhand clothes).
Kuria said his ministry is committed to ending poverty by creating employment opportunities in the textile industry, adding that those who buy mitumba are driven by poverty not will.
"Nobody wears mitumba out of their will, they wear it because they don't have enough disposable income, jobs or alternatives," he said.
The former Gatundu East MP said as an exporter of clothes, he can attest that mitumba is much more expensive.
Hassan however bashed CS Kuria arguing that his job involves creating more employment opportunities rather than reducing the mitumba business, which is worth more than Sh18 billion.
"The CS’s job description is to increase our trade, expand our industrial capacity and create more employment," he said.
"He is demonising a trade that employs more than two million people and gives Sh8 billion in revenues to the state annually."
Kuria's remarks come months after the Kenya Kwanza camp criticised Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance leader Raila Odinga for saying he was going to end the importation of mitumba.
While launching his manifesto for the August 9 general election, Raila pitched the plan to support locally produced clothes.
