The secret shot of BBC’s eyes reveals Maai Mahiu’s “Lady”

A BBC Africa survey reveals how women are involved in prostitution in Kenya with 13-year-old children.

In the transit town of Maai Mahiu in the Kenyan Rift Valley, trucks and trucks are spreading across the streets, covering goods and people from all over the country to Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The key transport center, just 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of the capital, is known for prostitution, but it is also a breeding ground for child sexual abuse.

Two secret investigators pretending to be sex workers wanting to learn how to be a lady’s sex worker, spending months earlier this year infiltrating the town’s sex trade earlier.

Their secret shot reveals two different women who they say they know it’s illegal and then introduce investigators to underage sex industry girls.

The BBC provided all the evidence to Kenyan police in March. The BBC believes that since then, the woman has moved to a location. Police said the women and young girls we photographed were untraceable. So far, no arrests have been made.

Convictions in Kenya are rare. To successfully prosecute, the police need testimony from children. Often, vulnerable minors are too afraid to testify.

The grainy footage of the BBC filming in the street in the dark shows a woman who calls herself nyambura and laughs: “They are still kids, so it’s easy to manipulate them just by handing them their dessert.”

She explained: “Prostitution is a cash crop of Maai Mahiu; truck drivers are basically fueling for it. That’s how we benefit. It’s normalized in Maai Mahiu.”

“When you deal with minors, it becomes very risky. You can’t just bring them publicly to town. I just sneak them away at night,” Nyambura said.

According to Kenyan national laws, prostitution is not clearly identified as a crime, but it is prohibited by the constitution of many municipalities. It is not banned in Maai Mahiu, part of Nakuru County.

Under the Criminal Code, live from the income of prostitution, whether as a sex worker or a third party to promote or profit from prostitution.

Trafficking or sales for minors under 18 years of age from 10 to life prison sentence.

When asked if she was wearing condoms, Nyambura said she usually made sure they were protected, but strangely, there wasn’t.

“Some kids want to make more (so don’t use them). Some kids are forced (not use them),” she said.

In another meeting, she led the undercover investigator to a house where three young girls were sitting on the sofa and the other was in a stubborn chair.

Nyambura then left the room, providing investigators with an opportunity to talk to the girl alone.

They describe being repeatedly abused every day.

One of the girls said: “Sometimes you have sex with multiple people. The client forces you to do something unimaginable.”

There are no recent statistics on the number of children forced to work in the Kenyan sex industry. In 2012, State Department report on human rights behavior in Kenya The cited estimate is 30,000, a figure originating from the Kenyan government and now resolved non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that eliminates child prostitution in Kenya.

Other research focuses on specific areas, especially along the coast of the country – well-known for its tourist attractions. Report for 2022 To end modern slavery by the NGO Global Fund, nearly 2,500 children were found to be forced to conduct sexual work in Kilifi and Quar County.

The second secret investigator gained the trust of a woman who called herself Cheptoo and had multiple meetings with her.

She said selling young girls means she can “make a living and comfort.”

“You are illegal because it is illegal, so you are in this kind of business,” she said.

“If someone says they want a young girl, I want them to pay me. We also have regulars who always come back for them.”

Cheptoo takes the undercover investigator to a club to meet her four girls. The youngest person said she was 13 years old this year. Others say they are 15 years old.

She opened up the profits she made from them, saying that Kenyan shillings ($23; £17) for every £3,000, her share was 2,500 shillings ($19; $14).

In another meeting, Cheptoo left the undercover investigator with only two underage girls in a house in Maai Mahiu.

One told her that she had sex with five people a day on average.

When asked what happened if she refused to have sex without a condom, she said she had no choice.

“I have to (sex without condoms). I will be chased and I have nowhere to go. I’m an orphan.”

Anyone outside the UK can watch it here

The sex industry in Kenya is a complex and vague world where both men and women participate in promoting child prostitution.

It is not known how many children are forced to work in sex in Maai Mahiu, but in this small town of about 50,000 people, it is easy to find them.

A former sex worker, known as a “baby girl,” now provides shelter for girls who escape sexual abuse.

The 61-year-old has worked in the sex industry for 40 years – first finding herself on the street in her twenties. She is pregnant, and her three children are with her because of domestic violence.

On the wooden kitchen table in a clever shop in front of the house, she introduced four young women to the BBC who were forced to have sex as a child by Ms. Maai Mahiu.

Each girl shares similar stories about broken families or abuse at home – they come to Maai Mahiu to escape and are only abused again.

Michelle describes how she lost her parents to HIV when she was 12 years old and was deported to the streets, where she met a man who gave her a place to live and began sexually abuse her.

“Literally, I had to pay for teaching me. I reached the limit, but no one was there.”

Two years later, a woman contacted her, she became a wife in Maai Mahiu and forced her to do sex work.

Lilian, 19, also lost her parents when she was very young. She left her to an uncle who took her in the shower and sold the image to his friends. The voyeurism quickly turned into rape.

“That was my worst day. I was 12 years old.”

When she escapes, she is raped again by a truck driver who takes her to Maai Mahiu. Like Michelle, here a woman who forced her to do sex was approached.

The short lives of these young women are fueled by violence, neglect and abuse.

Now, placed by baby girls, they are learning new skills – two in photography studios and two in beauty salons.

They also assist baby girls in outreach work in the community.

Nakuru County, one of Kenya’s highest HIV infection rates, is a mission to educate people about the risks of sexual behavior in a baby girl supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

She has an office at the Karagita Community Health Center near Lake Naivasha, where she provides condoms and advice.

But her outreach plan is about to cease as U.S. President Donald Trump withdraws U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding.

“From September, we will lose our jobs,” she told BBC World Service. He added how worried she is about the young women and girls who rely on her.

“You see how vulnerable these kids are. How will they survive alone? They are still recovering.”

The U.S. government did not respond to comments on the possible impact of the cuts in this investigation. The United States Agency for International Development officially closed last month.

Currently, Lillian is focused on learning photography and recovering from abuse.

“I’m no longer afraid because the baby girl is by my side,” she said. “She is helping us bury it.”