Juma Namlola
23 June 2006
Nairobi — More than 1,500 girls below 18 years in Coast Province are either working in bars or are involved in prostitution.
The rise in cases of the underage girls being sexually exploited has been partly blamed on pimps who arrange such contacts for their own financial benefit, according to a report released yesterday.
"The issue is a national problem where even law enforcers are involved," says the report on sex tourism and sexual exploitation of children sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef).
Presenting the report at ACK Guest Hall in Mombasa yesterday, one of the researchers, Ms Sarah Jones, told children's officers from Kwale District that the practice was common in Ukunda and Diani areas.
"Our study shows that boda boda men (bicycle tax operators), beach operators, taxi drivers, police and even hotel and guest house owners are playing pimps in support of child sex tourism," says the report.
The study identified two distinct groups of children engaged in sex work - local residents who are working as casuals and those who migrated from other provinces to look for white people. Most of the migrants, says the report, came mainly from Eastern, Central and Western provinces.
However, it blames parents "who are encouraging their children to practise prostitution when they are as young as 12 years".
Researchers were told that some parents were openly proud that their daughters had enabled them to lead a good through earnings from prostitution. The report focused on Malindi, Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale districts.
The deputy director of children's services in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ms Margaret Basigwa, challenged the society to freely discuss issues affecting children and families, to have a lasting solution to the problem.
According to this report, parents have a role to play. And other Kenyans are to ensure that issues of children's rights, poverty and families are urgently addressed, she said, adding that figures showed that most children who participated in commercial sex were either orphans or from broken families.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2006 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
