The number of daytime sex workers is growing in the country alarmingly, and even spreading across the border to Ethiopia, the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council (NSDCC) has said.
Members of Parliament (MPs) also heard that in Nyeri and Nairobi counties, the rising number is among married women, who come to town as early as 8 am after they have dropped their children in school.
The National Assembly Committee on Health, led by its chair, Endebess MP, Robert Pukose was on a fact-finding mission at the Council, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB). The MPs’ mission was to try and understand the challenges and successes in the three institutions.
Emerging problem
However, the legislators were shocked to learn of the emerging problem of day-time sex work, which is now expanding fast to include women who don’t necessarily venture out at night.
“In fact a county like Nyeri, I have had a meeting with the daytime sex workers, and it’s a very difficult group to deal with; because they leave their homes, go to town engage in sex work the whole day, then at 5pm they go and pick their children from school, and go home,” the Council’s Chief Executive Office, Dr Ruth Laibon Masha told the committee.
She said, most of these women are people’s wives.
And due to this, the Council is confronted with a challenge as meeting them becomes difficult.
“It becomes a huge challenge trying to meet them, since it has to happen during the day,” she said.
Sometimes, unlike the other sex workers who venture out at night and go to clubs, this particular group, Dr Masha pointed out, don’t go to any club.
“Those ones are the most difficult sex workers to deal with, and that’s a huge challenge for the Council, and Nyeri is the biggest problem,” she said, noting that the last time she was in Nyeri, Dr Masha met about 300 of them, most of them whom cited poverty for their actions.
“And it was interesting because they even came with their children,” she said. It is the same case with Nairobi, she said.
“It’s a group that’s growing as a resource basket, Nairobi’s River Road, Nyamakima area and adjacent areas host many day time sex workers.
