Human Trafficking in [Kenya Street Children in [Kenya] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Kenya] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Republic
of Kenya [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] The Republic of Kenya [map], located in E Africa, is bordered by Somalia (E), by the
Indian Ocean (SE), by Tanzania (S), by Lake Victoria (Victoria Nyanza) (SW),
by Uganda (W), by Sudan (NW), and by Ethiopia (N). Kenya is a source, transit, and destination country for men,
women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual
exploitation. Kenyan children are trafficked within the country for domestic
servitude, street vending, agricultural labor, herding, work as barmaids, and
commercial sexual exploitation, including involvement in the coastal sex
tourism industry. Kenyan men, women, and children are trafficked to the
Middle East, other African nations, Europe, and North America for domestic
servitude, enslavement in massage parlors and brothels, and forced manual
labor, including in the construction industry. Employment agencies facilitate
and profit from the trafficking of Kenyan nationals to Middle Eastern
nations, notably Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., and Lebanon, as well as Germany.
Chinese, Indian, and Pakistani women reportedly transit Nairobi en route to
exploitation in Europe’s commercial sex trade. Brothels and massage parlors
in Nairobi employ foreign women, some of whom are likely trafficked. Children
are trafficked from Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia,
Uganda, and Somalia to Kenyan towns, including Kisumu, Nakuru, Nairobi, and Mombasa.
Most trafficked girls are coerced to work as barmaids, where they are
vulnerable to sexual exploitation, or are forced directly into prostitution. - U.S. State Dept
Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2008 [full country report] |
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CAUTION: The following links have been
culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Kenya:
Tackling Human Trafficking Through a National Plan of Action In addition, internal trafficking
of Kenyans is considered to be widespread, particularly from rural to urban
areas such as Nairobi and Mombasa for exploitation in domestic labour and
commercial sex. The majority of Kenyan victims are either trafficked or introduced
to their traffickers by family members or friends, with the most common
method of recruitment being promises of good jobs or education. Once in a
trafficking situation, victims report overwork, physical and sexual abuse,
non-payment or under-payment, poor working conditions, and restricted or no
access to schooling. ***
ARCHIVES *** Quick Search for Missing Children
- Select Gender, Country ( U.S. Dept
of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – Victims
were trafficked from South and East Asian countries and the Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2001 [59] The Committee notes with appreciation
that the State party has signed a memorandum of understanding with ILO and
that various ILO/International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor
(IPEC) programs to prevent and combat child labor are being carried out. The
Committee also welcomes the establishment of a National Steering Committee on
child labor. Nevertheless, and in the light of the current economic
situation, the increasing number of school drop-outs and the increasing
number of street children, the Committee is concerned about the large number
of children engaged in labor and the lack of information and adequate data on
the situation of child labor and economic exploitation in the State party.
The Committee notes also with concern that notwithstanding various legal
provisions there is no firm minimum age for admission to employment and that
child labor is still prevalent in the State party. Kenya:
Tackling Human Trafficking Through a National Plan of Action In addition, internal trafficking
of Kenyans is considered to be widespread, particularly from rural to urban
areas such as Nairobi and Mombasa for exploitation in domestic labour and
commercial sex. The majority of Kenyan victims are either trafficked or
introduced to their traffickers by family members or friends, with the most
common method of recruitment being promises of good jobs or education. Once
in a trafficking situation, victims report overwork, physical and sexual
abuse, non-payment or under-payment, poor working conditions, and restricted
or no access to schooling. Passport forgery to blame for trafficking Immigration Officer Mr Alfred
Omangi said human trafficking was on the increase and that the cartels were
too advanced for law enforcers. It has
emerged that the Immigration Department is not adequately equipped to detect
forgeries. This, plus the porous nature of Kenyan borders, is fuelling human
trafficking. New study shames human traffickers A new report by an international
trade unions’ umbrella organisation says Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab
Emirates and Yemen are notorious destinations for women trafficked from
Kenya. International Confederation of
Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) says Kenyans were also trafficked to Germany, Italy
and South Africa for domestic labour and prostitution. Its report, ‘Trafficking in
Persons — The Eastern Africa Situation’, notes that women and children were
favourite targets for well-organised trafficking rings, which operate freely
for lack of solid laws against the vice. Dr George Gona, an expert on trade
unions at the University of Nairobi, said trafficking of children within
Kenya was also rampant. Studies showed
children were being removed from their rural homes to urban centres to work
as domestic helps and prostitutes. Trafficking
victim tells her story Lucy Kabanya, 39, was in high
spirits at the Moi International Airport in Mombasa on July 8, last year. And
she had every reason to be, for she had just boarded a Condor Airline plane
on her way to Germany, courtesy of her German “boyfriend”. Various thoughts
flashed through her mind as the plane cut through the clouds on its way to
Frankfurt, where she was to spend a three-month holiday. But all hopes of an
exciting and wonderful stay in a foreign land were shattered on arrival in
Germany, when her host confiscated her travel documents and denied her food
for several days before informing her that she would work as a sex slave. Nation Newspapers carries a story
today where the German ambassador
to Kenya laments on the practice of child trafficking. More than
20,000 children are trafficked annually in Kenya! 20,000! Where are the
parents whenever this practice is going on? The ambassador states that the
practice of child trafficking and prostitution is rampant due to private
villas where these activities are carried out. Kenya currently has the
notorious reputation as a hot sex tourism destination. Most of these villas
are rented by visiting tourists. Anything can happen behind closed doors and
nothing can be done to these law breakers. At 20,000 a year, these are too
many children who fall through the cracks without the care of the government
or families. With unmonitored villas and houses, the practice continues
without interruption. Mombasa
Hub for Human Trafficking "The whole network starts
when girls leave home to come to the Coast in the guise of looking for a job,
they join prostitution - the dream of each woman is to get a white man and be
taken abroad," said Ms Akinyi.
She said her organisation was involved in rehabilitation and
resettlement of women who have been married abroad and turned into slaves. State
drafting laws to curb human trafficking Lack of proper laws and policies
is hampering the fight against child trafficking, Vice-President, Mr Moody
Awori has said. Consequently, Awori on
Thursday said the Attorney General was drafting laws to curb trafficking of
persons. He said poverty, lack of education and high number of HIV/Aids
orphans exposed many people to human trafficking. She was a teenage orphan living on
the streets of Nairobi when a man approached her and promised her work in the
United Kingdom. He told her she would be working as a house girl. True to his word, her
"savior" brought her into the U.K. -- but instead of placing her
with a family the man took her to a brothel, where she was systematically
raped, beaten, and forced to work as a prostitute. Three months later, when the
16-year-old Kenyan girl became pregnant, she was forced to continue sleeping
with a succession of men until she was almost due to give birth. The heavily
pregnant teenager was then removed from the brothel, driven out of the town
where she had been held, and dumped many miles away on the streets of
Sheffield. Migration body to monitor human trafficking impact1 "Many girls are taken from
Iringa and brought to major cities to work as housegirls but they end up
being subjected to prostitution and other works which they did not expect,
this is internal trafficking," she said. Many young boys, she said, are
taken to work in the mining companies, something which not only denies their
rights but also are psychosocially affected. Law
needed to fight human trafficking, says Tobiko The Government is under pressure
to come up with a comprehensive national policy and legislation to counter
human trafficking in the country. The Director of Public
Prosecutions, Keriako Tobiko, said yesterday that the lack of a counter
trafficking legislation posed a big problem towards the prosecution of
offenders. AIDS
Now Compels Africa to Challenge Widows' 'Cleansing' In Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 4 Civil Liberties: 3 Status: Partly Free Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide Knight
Fellow accused of human trafficking “Alice came to the U.S. with
Njuguna-Githinji in the hope of a better life,” Harris said. “Instead she was
mistreated by Njuguna-Githinji, who failed to pay Alice hourly wages that
comply with federal minimum-wage standards.”
Kim added, “In addition to hourly wage violations, there is
substantial evidence that our client was a victim of false imprisonment,
fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress.” Although fully aware of her alleged
mistreatment, Alice refrained from contacting authorities after she was threatened
that she would be deported if she spoke to others about her work, Harris
said. ‘Deya
Babies’ Are Victims of Trafficking Archbishop Deya, whose wife is
being questioned, continues to maintain that he can and did create “miracle babies”
for childless couples by exorcising demons to make them fertile, some
charities have come out and said in no uncertain terms that his actions are,
in fact, a front for trafficking babies from Kenya to the UK. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN THE FAMILY - In some countries, personal status
laws may condone violence against women. Some obedience and modesty laws
require a wife’s submission to her husband and give the husband an explicit
or implicit right to discipline his wife, and in some countries women are
considered to be the property of their fathers or husbands. In parts of
Kenya, for example, on the death of her husband, a woman is likely to be
"inherited" by his brother or a close relative. US
names Kenya in slavery report "Some trafficking offences
could be prosecuted under laws addressing child labour, forced detention for
prostitution and the commercial exploitation of children, but no
trafficking-related offences have been prosecuted", the report says in
its assessment of Kenya. "Kenyan police officials continue to deny that
trafficking is a problem." But in seeming contradiction to
these criticisms, the State Department says elsewhere in the same assessment
that Kenyan officials are increasingly engaged with the United States to
develop anti-trafficking programmes. The report notes that a human
trafficking unit was created in the police force last year with US
assistance. The
vicious circle of sexual exploitation A unique feature of child
prostitution in Kenya is that people take in destitute children but instead
of caring for them, they hire the children out as prostitutes from time to time.
Some children are also kept in brothels alongside adult prostitutes. Child marriages have also been
noted as a form of sexual exploitation. They are common among the pastoral
communities in districts including Kajiado, Transmara, Moyale, Wajir, and Mandera.
According to the report, some parents are known to marry off their young
girls to older men in order to pay the school fees of their male siblings. - htcp Part 1:
Some foreign household workers enslaved MEDIAN HOURLY WAGE: $2.14 - But according to a June study
on domestic workers by Human Rights Watch, problems persist. A review of more
than 40 cases found immigrants on special visas received a median hourly wage
of $2.14, which is 42% of the $5.15 federal minimum wage. The median workday
was 14 hours. AMONG RECENT CASES - • Alice Benjo and Mary Chumo,
both from Kenya, were "kept as virtual slaves" at the home of their
employer, an employee at the Kenyan Embassy in Washington, according to legal
documents. They worked for Elizabeth Belsoi, a citizen of Kenya, in the
suburb of Bowie, Md. According to a lawsuit filed last year, they generally
worked more than 18 hours a day, couldn't use the phone and were unable to
freely leave the home. Belsoi denied
the charges through her lawyer, who says she fully complied with the
employment agreement. The lawsuit was settled out of court for an undisclosed
sum. 1. The linked
article has been taken down, restricted or moved All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use |
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Human Trafficking in [Kenya Street Children in [Kenya] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Kenya] [other countries]