April 4th 2007
From the Kenya Times

With her sleeping six-month-old baby daughter under one arm, 17-year-old Alice (not her real name) explains why she moved to Mombasa from ‘up country’, and how she joined the growing ranks of young girls involved in the commercial sex trade on the Kenyan coast.

“When I was sixteen, I became pregnant and my parents were very upset. They threw me out of my home and I dropped out of school, so my boyfriend and I decided to move to Mombasa to start a new life. After three months he left me, and I had to find a way to make money. There are no jobs around here, and I had no money. I had to buy food to feed my growing baby. I just carried on from there,” she said.

Serving ideally ‘mzungu’ male tourists, but otherwise locals, she does not see herself as a prostitute, preferring instead to be referred to as someone who practices ‘bangaisha,’ a ‘Sheng’ word meaning ‘soliciting for business’.

According to a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report, commercial sex tourism is growing rapidly on the Kenyan coast, and gaining increasing acceptance as a valid way of earning an income, spurred on by a flourishing tourism industry. According to the Kenya Tourism Board, 1.68 million tourists visited Kenya in 2005. (more…)