Prostitution in Kenya

Thousands of girls and boys are involved in casual child prostitution[5] due to poverty in the region.

[8][9] In 2006, a study by UNICEF reported that up to 30% of the population of children aged between 12 and 18 in the coastal regions of Malindi, Mombasa, Kilifi and Diani were engaged in some form of sex work.

[12] The University of Nairobi and Prof Elizabeth Ngugi established a program with local prostitutes to educate and empower them by encouraging condom use.

[11][16][17] Kenya is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking.

Children are also exploited in sex trafficking by people working in khat (a mild narcotic) cultivation areas, near gold mines in western Kenya, by truck drivers along major highways, and by fishermen on Lake Victoria.

Kenyans are recruited by legal or illegal employment agencies or voluntarily migrate to Europe, the United States, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, and Oman, in search of employment, where at times they are exploited in massage parlours and brothels.

Reports allege gay and bisexual Kenyan men are deceptively recruited from universities with promises of overseas jobs, but are forced into prostitution in Qatar and UAE.

[20] In The Verge, November 7, 2014, Frenzen C. was quoted saying, “A group that wants to ban all sex work in Ireland is making fake Tinder profiles” in order to discourage the use of the dating app as a prostitution enabler.

According to Fondation Scelles, a French NGO, apps such as AirBnB are being used for such accommodation reservations and in Kenya, the trade has made the shift to online platforms on infamous websites such as: kenyanescorts,[21] nairobihot,[22] kenyaraha[23] and many more bold examples all of whom own .com domains that have been active for more than a decade.