Kesho Kenya project to stop commercial sexual exploitation on children
Kesho Kenya has launched a project that aims at dealing with Commercial Sexual Exploitation on Children (CSEC) at the Mangro Hotel, Diani in Kwale County.
The project is a Terres Des Homme funded project and will run for a period of three years across 31 villages in Matuga, LungaLunga and Msambweni subcounties.
“It really saddens me when doing my police patrols and I come across young girls holding hands with very old wazungus. I wonder what they do with our young teenagers. ”says one police officer. He added that “School going children attend Taarab, you find them dancing with older men and stay out to the wee hours of the night and I always ask myself if their parents are aware of their whereabouts.”
Representative from ministry of health,“ We should really talk about massage parlors, salons and barber shops as hot spots especially at the barber, after shaving, they give you a small girl thereafter to massage you. ”
“Child exploitation should not be there, it is happening because someone refused to be an adult.” He went ahead: “What was done to you as a child should not be done to another child?”
Said the Deputy County Commissioner.
“People should report cases of child exploitation to the police as we are now very credible and we act upon such. We will ensure we set aside a desk that specifically handles sexual exploitation,” says one police officer.
“I know that the work I do is dangerous but I had to do it because I had to survive.” says one child
Studies, according to Terre Des Hommes – Netherlands, 2013 show that Kwale compared to other counties has the highest rate of CSEC with four out of five children having experienced sexual exploitation.
Children in Kenya are involved in commercial sex trade with both tourists and Kenyan nationals who travel from other parts of the country.
Orphans, children heading households and children from single parents are perceived to be the most vulnerable children to commercial sexual exploitation.
Bishop, “Asked where they as religious leaders come in and the role they need to play to bring an end to this”
The studies identify coerced by parents to bring food home, poverty and peer pressure as reasons pushing the underage to be vulnerable to boda boda guys, tourists, Kenyan travellers from different parts of the country, well off people and relatives.
Some of the strategies put forward by CSEC are prevention – in a case where it has not occurred, we prevent the situation from occurring. We have a project officer, 2 social workers office administrator and a counselor on the ground to identify risky environments.
Others are provision of counselling services for psychosocial problems, through prosecution, advocacy and partnerships with like-minded stakeholsers.
