Kenya: Overview of Prostitution in Kenya

23 October 2013
analysis

History of prostitution in Kenya dates back to the British colonial Africa. Nairobi was founded in 1899 in the middle of a region that had barely recovered from the epidemic and famine in its earliest years. Nairobi had no industrial base - the wealth of Kenya was kept in the agricultural sector - and hence there was no need for a permanent labour force. While the British colonialist sought to make the capital a city of male immigrants, the permanent African population clustered in the service sector: servants, prostitutes, and households and many landlords were indistinct in cities.

Women, in the absence of formal employment opportunities, earned the money with which to acquire property thorough prostitution. There were no pimps at any time in Kenya's history, so that prostitutes were able to retain control over their earnings when they so desired and have intimate and stable relations with the labouring men who were their customers.

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