BBC blasts Kenyan authorities for interrogating child sex trade survivors without legal representation
By Ascah Mwango, August 14, 2025The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has defended its hard-hitting Africa Eye documentary on child sexual exploitation in Maai Mahiu, saying it was produced in the public interest and based on credible evidence.
In a statement on Thursday, August 14, 2025, the broadcaster said the investigation documented how children in the Rift Valley town were being lured into the sex trade, adding that it was grateful to the survivors who came forward to share their experiences.
“BBC Africa Eye’s investigation ‘Madams: Exposing Kenya’s Child Sex Trade’ is an important piece of public interest journalism that documents the exploitation of children in the Kenyan sex trade,” the statement read.
The BBC also raised concern that some of the survivors who appeared in the film were later questioned by investigators without access to legal counsel. It stressed that all those who took part were adults recounting abuse they suffered as minors, and none were given money or instructed on what to say.
“We note with concern that following the broadcast of the film, survivors of childhood sexual abuse who contributed to the film were interviewed at length by investigators from the Kenya Directorate of Criminal Investigations without the presence of legal representation. There has also been a debate on the investigation in the Kenyan parliament,” the statement read further.
“For clarity, none of the contributors featured in this film were paid, offered payment or ‘coached’ in any way. As clearly stated in the film, the survivors of abuse who were interviewed were all over 18 and recounted experiences of abuse that occurred when they were underage. We are thankful to the survivors for their brave contributions.”
The broadcaster said it had handed over all the evidence to Kenyan authorities in March this year, including the identities of alleged offenders and children in need of urgent support.
“As detailed in the film, we originally handed the evidence gathered during the investigation to the Kenyan police in March 2025, in which perpetrators of crimes against children were identified, as were the victims who needed urgent assistance.”
The hour-long exposé claimed that girls as young as 13 were being recruited by women known as madams. Undercover reporters posed as women wanting to join the trade and recorded conversations with those who admitted the work was illegal but still introduced them to underage girls.
Despite receiving the material months before the broadcast, police had not arrested anyone by the time the programme aired, saying they were unable to locate the people captured on film.
Police and Parliament
The National Police Service responded on August 6, 2025, by announcing that a specialised multi-agency team had been sent to Maai Mahiu. It said officers had already questioned three people linked to the case and were working to identify, rescue and support affected children.
Police also pointed to the growing problem of online child exploitation and revealed that Kenya had set up Africa’s first forensic cybercrime unit dedicated to tracking and identifying victims through INTERPOL’s global database.
The investigation triggered a heated political debate. National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula accused the BBC of trying to tarnish Kenya’s image, saying he had watched the documentary and found it lacking credible revelations.
“If you listen carefully, its intention was not to bring out facts but to paint the country in a bad light, and more so Africans,” he told Parliament.
Gilgil MP Martha Wanjira Wanjiru pressed Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen to clarify whether minors were truly involved and whether those shown in the programme had been arrested. She also raised questions about the ethics of the investigation, suggesting the reporters may have used money to influence testimonies.
Murkomen dismissed the BBC’s claims, saying several of the women featured later admitted to inventing their stories at the request of the journalists. He said they were asked to find vulnerable girls between 17 and 19 years old for what they were told was a sponsorship initiative.
He also said Lucy Njoroge, known as Baby Girl, who appeared in the film as someone helping street girls, had been summoned for questioning. According to Murkomen, she and others retracted their accounts in the documentary.