The sex industry in Kenya is playing a greater role in the economy as a lack of jobs pushes youths into the vice. Interestingly enough, the trade is not growing in the familiar sense of twilight girls but assuming legitimacy through massage parlours, e-commerce websites, tourism, strip clubs and international dating.
A cursory survey by the Nairobi Chronicle reveals that a significant number of young women in Kenya earn their living by engaging in relationships with executives, diplomats, senior security officers as well as tourists. The relationships usually involve the lavishing of gifts, housing, cars and cash in exchange for sex. Apart from young women, youthful men are getting into the game by offering sexual services to upper-class men and women.
Often, these women are willing to engage in relationships with younger men in exchange for providing cash and jobs. So brazen has the sex industry become that recruitment is done openly through newspaper classifieds and websites. For many years, the street was a haven for scantily-dressed women patronized by men in limousines.
Not any more. However, the fact is that after dark, every street in Nairobi becomes a den of prostitution. Those who know where to look can find a woman or a man willing to have sex for money. Famous restaurants are included in the list of sexual liaison facilities in Nairobi.
Sex trade is taking place right in the heart of the capital city. Certain buildings which house executive offices have rooms hired out for the sex trade. However, knowledge of these facilities is restricted to practitioners and clients in the trade. Its indeed ironical that hundreds of thousands of Nairobians walk past the premises with little knowledge of the actual activities within these panelled walls.
