From: People For Peace
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012
Nairobi Mayor George Aladwa has become under severe attack from some religious leaders and politicians when he said on Sunday he has appointed a committee to advise whether prostitution should be legalised in Nairobi city. The committee, which is led by assistant town clerk in charge of reforms Daniel Masetu, was mandated to analyse city by-laws that make prostitution illegal and advise the mayor.
Speaking to journalists at the mayor’s parlour in Nairobi, Mr Aladwa said those who are criticizing his boldness are beneficiaries of the sex trade, adding that most of those involved in the trade are not there by choice but due to circumstances. There are some incidences where media has reported that there are some politicians and prominent business men who have been beneficiaries of the sex trade.
Aladwa’s argument was based on the fact that despite the law enforcement by officers swooping on them now and again, the trade is increasingly becoming flourishing with some women waiting for their clients at Holy Family Basilica, Koinange Street and Westlands. They cannot stop even if they are arrested because this is how they are making their living.
That is why the trade does not only attract old women but also minors because of poverty. Take an example of this young lady captured by Daily Nation, Joyce Wangari, 16, and her mother Margaret Wambui crushing stones into ballast at a construction site in Ongata Rongai last week.
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Joyce sat the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exams at Bethel Academy in Rongai in 2010 and scored 316 marks out of a possible 500 but lacked school fees to enable her to join Ewaso Girls’ High School.
The story of Joyce is just one of the many children who cannot make the ends meet, majority of whom are coming from single mothers. For a white man what Joyce and probably other young ladies and boys, who try to survive on different ways, including child commercial work is child labour, not considering the hardship they are undergoing.
When some politicians are planning to use billion shillings as portrayed in this cartoon below, for their presidential campaigns many young people like Joyce cannot afford school and probably four meals a day as required by dieticians.
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While white men will condemn such acts as child abuse, black men would wonder why Joyce has joined the work of crushing stones into ballast because traditionally this has not been a girl’s or woman’s job.
Religious, politicians and civil society organizations will condemn the act, but for 16-year-old Joyce Wangari with her mother they are forced to do it to keep her going, especially in fulfilling her dreams that one day she would be able to raise little money to enable her go to school. Her admission letter to Ewaso Girls’ High School lies in the house until she would be able to raise Ksh 26,000 required.
That is why even though prostitution in Kenya is illegal many, thousands of girls and boys are involved in full-time child prostitution due to poverty in the region. Many families see the sex industry as the only way of putting food on the table.
The trade was given a negative concept from Swahili word for ‘prostitute’ (Malaya) when Christian missionaries started to impose western moral values on African tribal structures in colonial Africa. They created instability, including the need for men to spend long periods away from home.
In this context the malaya arose, providing ‘home comforts’ away from home, or for men unable to afford the brideprice. The young girls often wear high heels, short dress and pay a bribe to security to get into the clubs where they can get men for the night.
They like Mzungu (White man) because they generally pay 5 times more for sex than a Kenyan labourer can earn in a day. Some of them have opted to travel abroad to be married by White men for similar purpose.
The issue here is not only prostitution- there are some young people who are ready to kill due to massive unemployment in Kenya. There are about 11 million young graduate Kenyans unemployed. Those who have succeeded to be employed by security guards are paid a minimal wage of about Ksh 6,389 (about 76 US dollars) before taxes.
This money is so minimal that it cannot pay rent- take children to school, medical care, eat and save. Youth and young adults constitute almost 60 percent of the entire Kenyan population. That is why they are forced to join odd jobs like security guards, barmaids, commercial sex, and robberies among others.
Like security guards barmaids are also paid very minimal wages. Majority of them are single mothers who want to educate their children, take care of them and pay rents. A barmaid can earn up to Ksh 4, 800 (about 63 S dollars).
It is against the background that even though the Kenya government blames women for giving birth to too many children as the reason it cannot realize the vision 2030, the fact however, is that the government is to blame for luck of political good will to reduce poverty.
For poverty to be reduced, and for development to be sustainable, there must be a dynamic balance between policies and actions, which promote jobs creation, decent standards of living and a better management of the physical environment.
Such policies must ensure that poor, children, women and minorities have access to the health care, the education and social and economic opportunities. This can only be achieved if the government can act on recommendations made to fight against corruption.
Yet Kenya cannot realise its vision 2030 because much of Kenyan income is to pay debt of about 1 trillion shillings that could not be paid since independence because the money landed in wrong hands and pockets.
It is against the background that over 2.5 million households in Kenya continued to live below the poverty line. Today it is not only one in every two Kenyans is poor, the majority of them are landless and cannot enroll their children to school. This is not to mention infant mortality and life expectancy which have deteriorated to the alarming rate.
It explains why teenage girls who drop out of school due to pregnancy, social, cultural, economics, gender preference- lack of school fees, ill health, and lack of interest or failure to pay non-tuition continue to increase at higher rate.
It is due to economic hardship that many schoolgirls are not only dropping out of school due but also indulge in drug abuse, including illicit brews to suppress the stress. It explains why there are increasing numbers of single mothers in Kenya.
But even those who are married, statistics indicate that money is a major cause of marriage breakdown, accounting for 64 per cent of all divorce and separation cases according to media report.
Even women who earn more than their spouses either through better jobs or doing better in business whose husbands are increasingly becoming dependant on them cannot afford to do that for longer time.
People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
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Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
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