King Noire defines sex work (Sex work and quarantine) as any way sex is part of your business, from stripping to porn to dome performance. This is in the distinction between sex work/prostitution and child sexual exploitation, trafficking/sex trade, and, transactional sex.
The history of sex work has been present in pre- and post-colonial times way into today's modern times. An early mention of sex work dates back to 2400 BCE Sumerian ca when there was mention of sacred prostitution operated by temple priests in the Uruk city. This was a common practice in countries like Greece, India, Japan, and China until 320 AD Constantine replaced these deities with Christianity demolishing these temples. The Greek word for a sex work is porne (Gr: πόρνη), derived from the verb pernemi (to sell). Sex workers could be independent and sometimes influential women and men. They were required to wear distinctive dresses and had to pay taxes. African literature mentions prostitution as only taboo after the introduction of foreign religions, eg Islam and Christianity.
Sex work is work like any other but main actors like religion, social cultures, and law regulations have woven a different fabric for sex work thereby fashioning a common bad attitude towards it with high notes of patriarchy and misogyny. To, date the word ‘malaya (Swahili), whore, harlot is used derogatorily as an insult universally.
Colonial regulation of sex work was often lax until the outbreak of World War II when colonial administrators became concerned about the spread of sexually transmitted infections and diseases among European troops stationed in Africa. Throughout history, sex work has been influenced by both endogenous factors- upsurges of civilization/urbanization, migration, war, globalization, geo-based economies and exogenous factors-world phenomena such as the rise of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, the novel health crisis of Covid-19 in 2019 and monkey-pox in 2022.
In this new age of technology and accessing information in seconds, we have become consumers of all kinds of information at once, gender, sex, and sexuality information are easily accessed and the population seems to be liberal and moving forward as laws seem outdated and conservative. Understanding sex and sexuality and having the freedom of expression is a human right afforded to all. Knowing sex exists in many consenting forms, gender is fluid-gender evolves and exists outside the binary; demystifying monogamy as the only lens a relationship can be; exploring gender identities-knowing women are not the only gender interested in sex work because sex work knows no gender. This has expanded the conversation of how sex and intimacy can be diverse-decoupling sex and intimacy-Tapiwa. Which has opened a vortex of knowledge and medium of trade around this line of work. Online applications like kenyaraha, Tinder, Grinder accelerate demand and offer convenience, on one hand, and on the other hand, it may come with security risks.
Kenya's federal laws don’t ban sex work but municipal by-laws do that may state:
“Any person who shall in any street or public place [m] loiter or importune for the purposes of prostitution [n] procure or attempt to procure a female or male for the purpose of prostitution or homosexuality shall be guilty of an offence.”
Due to education and advocacy purposes we use sex work instead of prostitution. In countries across the African continent, it is illegal to expect very few of them including Senegal and Cote’d Ivoire. The widespread criminalization of sex work and the failure of African states to protect sex workers’ rights encourage state and non-state actors to commit human rights abuses against sex workers. Such that sex workers are unable to access health services, social justice, and economic or civil protection.
In Kenya, there is The Kenya Sex Workers Alliance (KESWA) an umbrella NGO that has been in service for 12 years advocating for sex workers’ (male, female, transgender sex workers, sex workers using drugs, and sex workers living positively.) rights as human rights, through awareness raising, capacity strengthening, organizational development, and national advocacy. In a country with an estimate of 200,000 sex workers with Nairobi having 20 percent of them, only 101 are registered members of the union. Other groups as well like Sex Outreach Programme a group of hospitals that help; treat sex workers but challenges of stigma, religion, and by-laws like Nairobi County declaring sex work illegal has seen these workers (especially women) still report abuse to date. That has pushed sex workers into operating underground or in cahoots with the police which is an expensive affair- making them prone to abuse and risking their safety.
Why is it illegal if it’s rampant happening across the status quo?Is the constitution heavily relied on Christian values=British Values ? Who is gaining from this illegality of sex work? When will it be a human rights issue? How do we include sex workers in the conversation of economic and social justice? These and more questions are what we should ponder on next time we want to judge sex workers sitting on one side of the fence.
‘Sex work is not my identity but my profession’ as said by Phelister Abdalla from KESWA proclaimed is a true stance that the government should take, to include and legalize this old-trade sector for the betterment of its citizens and the overall economy as a whole.
Learn more about slut shaming, and sex work during the pandemic period. here