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The number of daytime commercial sex workers is growing at an alarming rate and even spreading across the border to Ethiopia, the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council(NSDCC) has declared.

Legislators heard that Nairobi and Nyeri were the most affected counties, with the rising number being among married women who throng the town as early as 8 AM after dropping their children at school.

The National Assembly Committee on Health Chair, Endebess MP, Robert Pukose went on a fact-finding mission at the NSDCC, Pharmacy and Poisons Board and National Cancer Institute(NCI). The mission was to understand the challenges and also the successes of the three institutions.

Legislators learnt that there’s an emerging problem of day-time prostitution which is expanding fast to encompass women who don’t really venture out during nighttime hours. Dr Ruth Laibon Masha informed the committee that,

“In fact a county like Nyeri, I have had a meeting with the daytime sex workers, and it’s a very difficult group to deal with; because they leave their homes, go to town engage in sex work the whole day, then at 5 pm they go and pick their children from school, and go home,”

She further asserted that most of these women are wives.“Those ones are the most difficult sex workers to deal with, and that’s a huge challenge for the Council, and Nyeri is the biggest problem,”

Dr Masha noted that the last time she was in Nyeri, she came across 300 of them with the most citing poverty for their actions. She said, “And it was interesting because they even came with their children. It is the same case with Nairobi.”

“It’s a group that’s growing as a resource basket, Nairobi’s River Road, Nyamakima area and adjacent areas host many daytime sex workers.”

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