Alarm as 15,000 children lured into prostitution

• Unicef study shows tourists take advantage of poverty to exploit young boys and girls

Sea, sun and sand have traditionally attracted holidaymakers to Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast. But a new report says there is another kind of tourist who has made the coast his destination for all the wrong reasons.

The report by the United Nations Children Fund (Unicef) says a growing number of people visit the area not for its postcard sunsets and palm-fringed beaches but to exploit children sexually. The practice has come to be known as child sex tourism.

According to the report, between 10,000 and 15,000 boys and girls at the Kenyan coast are involved in sex work. Of these, as many as 3,000 are engaged in sex work full time.

The report is based on a 2006 study of the practice in different places in Coast Province, including Mombasa, Mtwapa, Shanzu, and Malindi.

Major reason

Most of the respondents in the Unicef survey cited poverty as a major reason for involving themselves in prostitution.

“It is a tragedy that although coastal Kenya has been the traditional tourism destination, it lies among the country’s poorest regions, and residents look to sexual exploitation as a source of income,” said Dr Ben Sihanya, a law lecturer at the University of Nairobi.

Despite the presence of many of the country’s top hotels and resorts in the province, little, if any, of the income generated by these establishments goes into improving the lives of local residents.

In the case of establishments with foreign ownership or Kenyan owners who expatriate profits, much of the money generated either never even enters the country or is sent abroad.

This, the report says, makes the environment conducive to sex tourism and child prostitution.

“With a weak local economy, insufficient funds from tourism trickling down to the communities, high levels of poverty and a large number of tourists with the perception that the their holiday is incomplete without a sexual encounter with the local population, sexual exploitation will continue to thrive,” the report says.

The report describes the practice as “the meeting point of different needs’,” saying the only way it will end is when alternatives to meeting these needs are found.

Contrary to the belief that foreigners fuel the illicit sex trade, the study found out that 39 per cent of the clients were Kenyan men, who also doubled as a link between the children and foreign clients.

“The child sex workers provide sexual services to Kenyan hotel workers and beach boys in order to access tourists,” the report says.

Condom use was found to be lowest among Kenyan, Italian and German men. Italians, Germans and Swiss ranked highest among clients who preferred under- age girls.

“These three nationalities were significantly more active with underage girls than other nationalities,” according to the report.

It also emerged that a majority of the children involved in sex work in Coast Province came from outside the province. Some came from as far as Nairobi, Kisumu, Kirinyaga, and Eldoret and were taken to the coastal towns under various pretences only to end up as sex workers.

The children operate in various places, including beaches, lodges and bars where owners at times allow them (the children) in to boost the number of patrons.