Modern-Day Slavers Preying On Famine-Stricken Women And Children In Kenya

Promises coated in the cruelest of lies are luring thousands of victims into lives of modern slavery, as small East African towns shattered by famine and poverty are being visited by human traffickers recruiting women and children for sexual exploitation, turning Kenya into a "notorious transit point" in human cargo fed with false hopes for better lives:

The Kenyan coast has been identified as being a notorious transit point for traffickers where children work as prostitutes and beach boys.
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Investigations have established that trafficking is now being extended to smaller towns like Samburu, Makueni, Marereni and Ukambani due to famine and poverty.
Other places include areas where victims of the post election skirmishes have pitched tents.
"Unscrupulous people go to these areas and try to provide alternatives for the victims hence trafficking them," says Mr Japheth Kasimbu, IOM counter-trafficking officer.
... [Mr Paul Adhoch, the Executive Director of Trace, a counter trafficking organisation based in Mombasa] says that 6,000 to 9,000 people are trafficked annually in Coast Province with a third of them being children.
"Mombasa is a source, destination and route of trafficking. Individuals, especially girls from as far as Uganda, Tanzania and DR Congo come to Kenya with hopes of linking up with rich tourists but some of them unfortunately turn them into sex slaves," he says.
According to an officer at African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANNAPCAN), an organisation that helps victims of cross-border trafficking at Tarakea, on the Kenya-Tanzania border, trafficking is caused by unemployment.
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"Brothels and massage parlours have turned to be exploitation dens for foreign young women. Victims are trafficked from Rwanda, Democratic republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Uganda and Somalia and are coerced to work in these establishments, increasing their vulnerability to sexual exploitation or forced into prostitution," he says.