Season of harvest for farmers – and prostitutes

• Bumper crop on the wheat farms of Narok brings mixed fortunes to families

When Sempele ole Kisotu harvested wheat on his 50-acre farm at Ntulele in Narok North district last year, he thought he had kissed poverty goodbye. Only a few months earlier he had been advised to sell his cattle and switch to wheat farming, said to be more lucrative.

After paying off his debts, he pocketed Sh500,000 and swaggered to a matatu heading to Narok town to slake his thirst with a few drinks.

No sooner had he alighted in town than he met some charming and scantily dressed women who sweet-talked him as he walked to a pub.

When he came to, he was lying in a dingy hotel room without a cent in his pocket.

Today Mzee Kisotu can be found wandering around Ntulele Trading Centre talking to himself.

He is just one of the many wheat farmers who fall prey to commercial sex workers who descend on shopping centres in this wheat-growing region during the harvest seasons. The women come from Uganda, Tanzania, Eldoret, Kericho, Nairobi and Mombasa.

With some 80,000 hectares under the crop, Narok is the largest wheat-producing area in East Africa. And while this has brought some development to the area, it has also brought pain and tears.

The situation is particularly bad this season due to earnings from the bumper crop. Local police chief Charles Okweya has put farmers on high alert.

“This season the crime rate is very high,” he said. “Farmers are being robbed. Fraud cases in banks concerning fake banker’s cheques and currencies are rampant.”

Seasonal brothels

Ibrahim Ishmael of the NGO Impact Kenya Youth Initiative says seasonal brothels sprout during the harvest season in Narok.

“There are commercial sex workers who come during harvesting season,” he said. “They invade Kericho during tea bonus season in November and throng here (Narok) in July. In September they will be elsewhere.”

The prostitutes, he said, make advance visits to the area during the planting season to gather information on farmers’ lifestyles and who is planting wheat on how much land. It is believed that the women identify easy prey during these visits.

Owners and renters of combine harvesters are also prime targets.

In Narok, Ntulele, Ololulung’a and Mulot towns hotel rooms are converted into temporary brothels on short notice and tenants kicked out to make way for the high-paying “tourists”.

“Their rooms are even paid for in advance and at a much higher rate,” said David ole Sankok, chairman of the Narok Central Business Association.

Local residents say police have carried out several swoops to arrest the prostitutes who are set free almost immediately.

“They (the prostitutes) grease the hands of unscrupulous police officers and get released quickly,” said a businesswoman at Ololulung’a who requested not to be named.