BBC Africa Eye’s secret filming exposes the ‘madams’ of Maai Mahiu

An investigation into the eyes of the British Broadcasting Corporation in Africa revealed how women, known as “My Lady”, participated in children of 13 years of prostitution in Kenya.

In the town of Mai Mahiu, in the Rift Valley in Kenya, trucks, trucks and trucks are the daytime streets that transport goods and people throughout the country to Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The main transportation center, just 50 km (31 miles) east of the capital, Nairobi, is famous for prostitution, but it is also a reproductive land of sexual assault on children.

They spent secret investigators, as they were sex workers who want to learn how to become Seedams, earlier this year in infiltration into sex trading in the city.

Their secret depiction reveals two different women who say they know it is illegal and then introduce investigators to underage girls in the sex industry.

BBC gave all the evidence to the Kenyan police in March. BBC believes that the woman has moved her location since then. Police said it was not possible to track the young women and girls we photographed. So far there have been no arrests.

The condemnations are rare in Kenya. For successful judicial prosecutions, the police need certificates of children. The weak palace is often very afraid to testify.

BBC shots that were filmed on the street in the dark showed a woman calling herself Niabura, laughing as she says: “They are still children, so it is easy to manipulate as soon as they are delivered their sweets.”

She explained that “prostitution is a cash crop at Mai Mahiu; truck drivers are mainly nurtured. Thus we benefit from it. It has been normalized in Maai Mahiu,” adding that she has one girl at the age of thirteen, who was already working “working” for six months.

“It becomes very risky when you deal with minors,” Niabora said.

The action of prostitution is not criminalized by an adult personally attached to the Kenyan National Law, but it is prohibited by many municipal regulations. It is not blocked in Maai Mahiu, which is part of Nakuro Province.

Under the Penal Code, it is illegal to live from prostitution profits, either as a sexual factor or a third party that facilitates or benefits from prostitution.

Trafficking or selling minors under the age of 18 carries a prison sentence between 10 years to life.

When asked if the customers were wearing a condom, Niabura said she usually confirmed that they had protection, but the stranger did not do so.

“Some children want to earn more [so don’t use them]. Some of them were forced [not to use them]She said.

At another meeting, she led the secret investigator to a house where three young girls sat on a sofa, and another in a supported chair.

Then Niabura left the room, giving the investigator an opportunity to speak to the girls alone.

They were described over and repeatedly hurting sex, on a daily basis.

“Sometimes, you have sex with many people. Customers force you to do unimaginable things,” said one of the girls.

There are no recent statistics on the number of children who were forced to work in the sex industry in Kenya. In 2012, The state report at the US State Department on human rights practices in Kenya He cited an estimate of 30,000, a number derived from the Kenyan government and now a non -governmental organization (NGO), the elimination of prostitution in Kenya.

Other studies have focused on specific areas, especially along the country’s coast – known as its tourist resorts. Report 2022 For the NGO Global Fund to end modern slavery, I found approximately 2,500 children who have been forced to have sex in Kilifi and KWALE provinces.

A second secret investigator has gained confidence in a woman who called herself about Cheptoo and held multiple meetings with her.

She said that selling young girls means that she “can gain a living and comfort.”

“You are carrying out this type of business in great secrecy because it is illegal,” she said.

“If anyone says they want a little girl, ask them to pay me. We also have our regularity who always return to them.”

Cheptoo took the secret investigator to a club to meet four of her girls. The youngest said that she was thirteen years old. Others said they were fifteen years old.

She opened the profit that you achieve from it, saying to every 3000 Kenny Crillos ($ 23; 17 pounds) offered by girls, its share was 2500 shillings ($ 19; 14 pounds).

At another meeting, at a house in Maai Mahiu, Cheptoo left the secret investigator alone with two girls without legal age.

Someone told her that she had sex with five men a day.

When asked about what happened if she refused to have sex without a condom, she said she had no choice.

“That [have sex without a condom]. I will be chased, and I have no place to run. I am an orphan. “

People outside the United Kingdom can watch here

The sex industry in Kenya is a complex, vague world where both men and women participate in facilitating prostitution for children.

The number of children who are forced to have sex in Mai Mahiu, but in this small city with a population of about 50,000, is easy to find.

The previous sex factor, known as the “child’s child”, offers a shelter in Mai Mahiu for girls who escaped from sexual assault.

The 61-year-old girl worked for 40 years of sex-firstly that she finds herself in the streets in the early twenties. She was pregnant and gave birth to her three young children with her after fleeing her husband because of home violence.

On her wooden kitchen table in a bright salon at the front of her home, BBC came to four young women who were all forced to have sex by Seedams in Mai Mahyu when they were children.

Each girl shared similar stories about broken families or ill -treatment at home – they came to Mai Mahiu to escape, just to abuse violent treatment again.

Michelle described Kaif, at the age of 12, who lost her parents due to HIV and was expelled to the streets where she met a man who gave her a place to live and began to misuse her sexual treatment.

She said, “I had literally pushing him about his kind to educate me. I reached my limit, but I had no person.”

Two years later, a woman called her to be my lady in Mai Mahyu and forced her to have sex.

Lillian, who is now 19 years old, lost her parents at a very early age. I left with uncle he photographed in the bathroom and sold the pictures to his friends. The almonds soon turned into rape.

“This was my worst day. I was 12 years after that.”

When she escaped, she was raped again by a truck driver who took her to Mai Mahiu. He was here, like Michel, where a woman who forced her to have sex approached her.

The life of these short young women was fueled by violence, neglect and abuse.

Now, which is included in a child, they learn new skills – two in the photography studio and two in a beauty salon.

They also help the girl with her work in society.

Nakuru Province has one of the highest rates of HIV in Kenya, and the girl, supported by the US Aid Agency, is on a mission to educate people about unprotected sex risks.

It has an office at the Karagita Community Health Center, near Naivasha Lake, where she works in a condom and advice.

However, with US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the financing of the United States Agency for International Development, its awareness programs are about to stop.

“From September, we will be unemployed,” she said to the BBC World, adding how worried about young women and girls who depend on her.

“You see how weak these children are. How will they survive on their own? They still heal.”

The United States government did not respond to comments on this investigation on the potential impact of its funding. The US Agency for International Development officially closed last month.

Currently, Lillian focuses on learning photography and recovery from ill -treatment.

She said, “I am no longer afraid, because the girl is there for me.” “It helps us bury the past.”