Emerging Scope for Vegetable Tanning in Eco-Leather: A Case of Kenya

The leather and footwear industry in Kenya has been in existence for over a century, dominated mainly by small and medium scale tanneries and producers of leather products. Over the years the industry’s transformation has undergone several metamorphosis and upheavals along its development. There is interest in developing eco-friendly tanning processes, specifically those based on organic processes. As a consequence, the emerging scope for vegetable tanning provides an encouraging prospectus for the leather industry in Kenya. In this paper, an attempt is made to summarize closely related aspects of the Kenyan leather industry with a bias on the vegetable tanning sector. It highlights the historical perspective of vegetable tanning in Kenya, current trends, product development and its merit in socio-economic impact, sustainable production.