Kenya has least number of modern slaves in East Africa, report says

Kenya is home to 39,000 victims of modern slavery and is ranked 102 out of 160 countries rated worldwide, a new report indicates.

What you need to know:

  • Among the East African Community states, Kenya is placed last with the least number of modern slavery victims.
  • In Africa, Mauritania ranks highest with about 160,000 people living under slavery conditions.
  • Study gave a wide range of factors equated to slavery including debt bondage and bonded labour, domestic servitude, forced begging, sexual exploitation of women and children, and forced marriage.

Kenya is home to 39,000 victims of modern slavery and is ranked 102 out of 160 countries rated worldwide, a new report indicates.

Among the East African Community states, the country has the least number of slavery victims.

Uganda tops the region, ranking 25 worldwide, with approximately 270,000 slaves from a population of 36 million, followed by Tanzania (350,000) with a population of 48 million.

Rwanda is ranked 43 and Burundi at 41.

INDIA TOPS GLOBAL LIST

Globally, India tops the list with an estimated 13 million slaves out of its approximated 1.2 billion people. China follows with 2.9 million and Pakistan is third with 2.2 million modern slaves.

Over 30 million people are enslaved worldwide, according to the research carried out by the Walk Free Foundation, an Australian-based organisation founded last year which campaigns for human rights.

The organisation has been endorsed by influential figures including former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

The study gave a wide range of factors equated to slavery including debt bondage and bonded labour, domestic servitude, forced begging, sexual exploitation of women and children, and forced marriage.

In Africa, Mauritania ranks highest with about 160,000 people living under slavery conditions. Benin is second and Ivory Coast third. Mauritius is least ranked with 560 slaves against a population of 1.2 million.

This is the first edition of the Global Slavery Index.

PIONEER SLAVERY INDEX

It is the first index of its kind – providing an estimate, country by country, of the number of people living in modern slavery today.

After the pioneer report, the Walk Free's Global Slavery Index will be producing yearly studies capturing a global picture of the numbers of enslaved people.

The Index will also identify factors that shed light on the risk of modern slavery in each country and examine the strength of government responses in tackling this issue.

Commenting about the figures former US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said: “I urge leaders around the world to view this index as a call to action, and to stay focused on the work of responding to this crime, even if your country receives a positive rank. Now we know the Index isn’t perfect and can’t answer every question about modern slavery, but this is an important starting point.”

The countries with the highest numbers of enslaved people are India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Russia, Thailand, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Taken together, these countries account for 76 per cent of the total estimate of 29.8 million in modern slavery.