These include selling vegetables, charcoal, second hand clothes and running of small food kiosks in order to make ends meet.

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Vintage clothes For a long time, image-conscious Italians wouldn't be seen dead in second-hand clothes.

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They say the West also dumps second-hand clothes into Africa at prices that stifle local textile production.

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"Probably 90% of the clothing people are buying in the whole country are second-hand clothes, " says Owori.

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So clothing is a bad money, since no one places the same value on second-hand clothes as new ones.

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"As much as I don't like second-hand clothes to be in the market, I don't have an alternative, " she says.

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His inspiration comes he says from many different places, including the global brands that end up in Nairobi's second-hand clothes markets.

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The second-hand clothes market that has sprung up is another.

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To deal with the problem, a number of African countries have banned imports of second-hand clothes in recent years as part of efforts aimed at protecting their national textiles industries.

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In fact, most of my close friends are frugal converts who get their clothes second-hand like I do.

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