The High Court of Kenya has temporarily suspended the ban on non-woven bags.
In a ruling delivered on Thursday morning, the court noted that the ban on the carrier bags has been suspended pending the hearing of an application filed in court by the Importers and Small Traders Association.
According to the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA), the ban was to take effect from April 1, 2019.
At the time, NEMA’s Director General Geoffrey Wahungu had vowed to partner with relevant government agencies to arrest importers, producers and consumers of the popular bags sold in almost every corner streets across the country.
Read: Arrests As Ban On Non-woven Bags Takes Effect Today
Wahungu had warned: “The penalties are equal to those of banned plastic bags. We are not going to tell them put strategies; that today we will raid Mombasa, Nairobi or Nakuru.
“To be clear, from today, non-woven bags are contraband and people will be arrested,” he added.
NEMA had even unveiled alternative environment friendly bags following their initial ban on the non-woven bags.
In a presser, Wahungu had noted that the newly approved bags were made from sisal, cotton, reeds as well as certain types of hard plastic.
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