The Kenyan government is intensifying efforts to revive its cotton, textile, and apparel industry as part of its broader Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda, aimed at expanding manufacturing and creating employment.
During an official benchmarking mission to Benin—one of Africa’s top cotton producers—Principal Secretary for Industrialization Dr. Juma Mukhwana underscored the sector’s strategic importance. “The cotton textile and apparel sector in Kenya is a priority value chain for the Kenya Kwanza government,” said Dr. Mukhwana. “Textiles have been identified as a key driver for economic growth and job creation.”
The delegation, which included officials from the State Department for Industrialization and Rivatex East Africa Limited, sought insights into Benin’s thriving cotton ecosystem, which supports nearly 900,000 people and produced 553,000 tonnes in the 2023/24 season. Benin’s success is underpinned by strong backward linkages between farmers, ginneries, and manufacturers—an approach Kenya is looking to replicate.
Dr. Mukhwana noted that despite the high demand for local textile products, almost 40 Export Processing Zone (EPZ) factories in Kenya still rely heavily on imported raw materials. Strengthening local sourcing and production is essential, he said, to reduce dependency on imports and enhance domestic value addition.
The mission also served as part of due diligence in evaluating ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms (ARISE IIP), a finalist in the tender to lease Rivatex—the state-owned textile firm based in Eldoret. ARISE IIP is known for its development of industrial parks and special economic zones across Africa.
“We came here to assess their capabilities and ensure they meet the tender requirements before any award is made,” said Dr. Cleophas Lagat, Rivatex Board Chair.
The restructuring of Rivatex follows a January 2025 Cabinet directive encouraging strategic partnerships without equity dilution. By modernizing Rivatex and drawing from successful models like Benin’s, the government hopes to fully leverage trade opportunities such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). In 2022, Kenya exported $603 million worth of apparel to the U.S. under AGOA, accounting for 67.6% of its total exports to the country.
The planned reforms are expected to improve Kenya’s global competitiveness, strengthen supply chains, and create thousands of new jobs in the textile value chain.
