Kenya making gains in fight against 'modern slavery', US says

One of the three patrol speedboats the government bought from the Netherlands on patrol in the Kilindini Channel in 2012. The boats are used by marine officers along the Coastal strip from Vanga to Kiunga to ward off human traffickers, pirates and transporting of illegal cargo. PHOTO | GIDEON MAUNDU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Report says Kenyan authorities reported prosecution of 762 suspected traffickers in period ending in April.
  • Last year authorities reported 65 prosecutions during the same period in 2015.
  • Kenya is listed in this year's report as one of 78 countries deemed to be falling short of full compliance with “minimum” anti-trafficking standards.

NEW YORK

Kenya is making significant gains in combating “modern slavery,” the US State Department said in a report issued on Thursday.

“The government increased efforts to prevent human trafficking,” the US finds in the Kenya section of the 190-nation global survey.

It notes that Kenyan authorities reported prosecution of 762 suspected traffickers in a 12-month period ending in April this year.

That compares to 65 reported prosecutions during the same time span in 2015.

There was a similarly sharp increase in reported convictions of traffickers — from 33 cited in last year's report to 456 in the new survey.

Some of the increase may be due, however, to the inclusion for the first time of data from all 47 of Kenya's counties, the report noted.

The report also points to what the US regards as continued inadequacies in Kenya's performance in protecting its citizens from sexual enslavement and other forms of severe exploitation.

Kenya is listed in this year's report as one of 78 countries deemed to be falling short of full compliance with “minimum” anti-trafficking standards.

Countries in this group are also said, however, to be “making significant efforts to meet those standards.”

SEX TRAFFICKING

In Kenya's case, the US says, “the government made inconsistent efforts to protect child trafficking victims, and efforts to identify and assist adult victims remained weak.”

Some children in the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps “may endure sex trafficking,” the report states, adding that “others are taken from the camps and forced to work on tobacco farms.”

Trucks transporting goods from Kenya to Somalia sometimes return to Kenya with girls and women who were subsequently sent to brothels in Nairobi or Mombasa, the report says.

Children are exploited in prostitution throughout Kenya, the US report asserts.

Girls and boys are made to serve sex tourists on the Coast, sometimes with family members facilitating their exploitation, the US says.

Children are likewise reportedly forced into the sex trade in miraa-growing areas as well as in the vicinity of Nyanza's gold mines and by fishermen on Lake Victoria.

“Gay and bisexual Kenyan men are deceptively recruited from universities with promises of overseas jobs, but are forced into prostitution in Qatar and UAE,” the report notes.

The study adds: “Kenyan women are subjected to forced prostitution in Thailand by Ugandan and Nigerian traffickers.”

The Ministry of Labour developed new policies to ensure that work contracts for Kenyan expatriates comply with specific standards set by the government, the report says.

But it adds that these policies had not been implemented as of April.

(Editing by Joel Muinde)