Most sex workers at Sabina Joy and other brothels within Nairobi joined prostitution due to poverty.
Though prostitution is illegal in Kenya, there are over two hundred thousand sex workers in the country. Due to the lack of regulations in prostitution, the sector has continuously experienced systematic violations of women’s rights, violence by customers or police, social stigma, unjustified arrests. Sometimes the sex workers are driven to serious physical and mental injuries if the situation gets out of hand.
Several sex workers at Sabina Joy don’t like to be called a prostitute but be referred to as a sex worker.
Most of these young women parade through the clubs and brothels or walking through the streets of Nairobi looking for casual sex. In a night if they are lucky, in a night, these sex workers can make up to Ksh4,000 or more in a good night.
From their physical appearance, these women appear strong but on the inside, they have suffered episodes of gender violence in their line of work. From drunken customers or ruthless machoes, several abusers hide in the crowd of regulars at the Sabina Joy.
Serving HIV infections and gender violence
In Nairobi, surprisingly, the rate of gender violence is higher than that of sexually transmitted diseases.
In 1995, 65% of Nairobi’s sex workers were HIV positive. And in 2015, research revealed that HIV prevalence among the sex worker in the city had fallen b more than half.
HIV rates among the sex workers in Nairobi various from one area to the other. In areas where there is a high level of poverty, HIV prevalence is higher compared to uptown areas.
Despite HIV rates being on the decrease, gender-based violence has been on the rise among sex workers. 38 percent of sex workers have reported cases of violence.
“Sometimes customers refuse to pay you after the service or refuse to use a condom. Then they hit you and abuse you. There have been cases of rapes committed by groups of men or violent practices of all kinds. Some guys, some of them Muslims, want anal sex and force you to do it,” a sex worker identified as Mary told One World.
To cope up with the violence, sex worker have decided to pay a person to protect them from violent customers.
Denied access to condoms
Although the use of condoms has increased among Kenyans due to various awareness campaigns put in place by various private institutions and the government, authorities have been on several accused of threatening the health of sex workers.
The police have been accused of destroying condoms meant for the sex workers claiming that the protections are encouraging illegal practice.
These kinds of restrictions have put the lives of many Kenyans including the sex workers at risk. It is now estimated that about 1.6 million Kenyans live with HIV.
“Many young girls come to the hospital at night and say they have been raped or attacked to receive emergency antiretrovirals. In most cases, however, We know that they are sex workers who had unprotected sex to get more money from their customers,” a health technical assistant at Kenyatta National Hospital told One Word.
