Environment Cabinet Secretary Judi Wakhungu has accused the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) of cheating Kenyans by exaggerating the impact of the ban on manufacture and import of plastic bags used for commercial and household packaging.
The manufacturers' advocate had earlier claimed that 600,000 jobs and an untold number of people would lose their source of income as soon as the ban takes effect.
"I want to assure the public that the figures being put by KAM of the job loss are exaggerated. The number of jobs that will be created will be more than those lost," Prof. Wakhungu assured the parliamentary Committee on Environment.
The CS insisted that KAM had lied to the public and sustained that her ministry would table the accurate figures.
"The issue of good faith is important here and KAM should tell Kenyans the truth. We have all records of our engagement and will table it," she asserted.
The government announced the ban on use of plastic bags in March and indicated that it would take effect from September of this year as an environmental management initiative.
Read More: Kenyan Government Bans Use of Plastic Bags
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has termed the plastic bags as the top challenge for urban waste disposal in Kenya with over 100 million of them handed out in supermarkets alone annually.
