University students among
twilight girls caught in street
By LIZ GITONGA
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A Twilight girl hides her face from the camera as she is sweet-talked by a watchman along Taifa Road in Nairobi on Friday night. Photo by Stephen Mudiari |
The elderly woman cuts an unusual figure as she strolls down Koinange Street, Nairobi, in the dead of the night. After sundown, one would associate most women on this street with the oldest profession. And the peddlers range in age from 14 to 35.
Prof Elizabeth Ngugi of the University of Nairobi's Department of Community Health, often braves the cold nights on the street and can be found mixing freely with the commercial sex workers as she does her research.
What is shocking is that during the day, they could be sitting in Prof Ngugi's class and taking assignments.
Students from the University of Nairobi and other colleges around the city are regulars on Koinange Street.
They parade in their skimpy outfits to attract men and sell their bodies in an effort to make ends meet.
"These are hard times and the money we get from the Higher Education Loans Board is so little that I cannot rule out the possibility of students forming the bulk of those who walk up and down Koinange Street at night," a fourth year University of Nairobi student told the Sunday Nation.
She suggested that financial difficulties, coupled with "the loose morals of a few", were to blame for the students' indulgence in the sex trade.
Speranza Kwiriga, a Nairobi resident says some students are in commercial sex work purely to earn money to help cope with financial difficulties. "But some do so because they want money to buy expensive clothes and associate with high class people."
How do some of the establishments on this street handle the issue of prostitutes? A manager at Kengeles restaurant said: "At first we were worried about the heavy presence of prostitutes but, to our surprise, the problem has solved itself.
"The restaurant is rather open and faces the street. This means that those picking up prostitutes can be easily seen from the restaurant. Apparently, this puts off the would-be clients. The girls are slowly shifting from the vicinity."
Prof Ngugi says: "Their clients are both from the high and low classes. Many pick them up in big and expensive cars."
Her main concern is the prostitutes' health. She also keen to get them off the streets and into a different line of work.
Despite knowledge of the risks the prostitutes expose themselves to � contracting STDs and Aids � their numbers seem to increase by the day.
A worker at the Florida Night Club, also on Koinange Street, says the prostitutes range from teenage girls to women in their 40s.
He adds: "People come in their big, expensive cars to pick them up. I would rate Koinange Street as a zone for the high class category of both prostitute and client."
Prof Ngugi has established a rehabilitation centre in the Pumwani area for commercial sex workers. She also goes out to the nearby Majengo slums to talk to prostitutes.
She says that some of those she has encountered are not prostitutes by choice and genuinely despise their profession.
But there are those who are in the business more in rebellion against their families than to make money. Some girls get involved in the trade under pressure from their peers and find it hard to get out.
It is believed that the women who target high income-earners are more discerning about whom they have as their clients and are more health conscious. They are more likely to use condoms to reduce the risk of contracting diseases.
The prostitutes are also more likely to suffer chronic cervical cancer. Medical reports say that when a woman has many partners, she increases the risk of getting cervical cancer.
Prof Ngugi's concern about Aids dates back to the 1980s, when she began doing research amongst prostitutes.
In 1985, a year after the first Aids case was reported in Kenya, Prof Ngugi set out to help save lives.
It was then that she formed her organisation which rehabilitates commercial sex workers and young girls who have suffered sexual abuse. The girls in Prof Ngugi's programme are aged between 10 and 18.
Of the 300 girls in the programme, 15 have since got married, she says. And one of those rescued in 1986 is now a university student. Today, the programme sponsors about 1,000 former commercial sex workers.
She advises the prostitutes is to abstain from sex. But she also encourages them to use condoms.
She says prostitution is a two-way problem. "If you display vegetables in the market everyday and no-one buys them, you quit the business."
She believes that the commercial sex workers can be offered alternative sources of income.
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