Kisii S£X workers ask President Uhuru Kenyatta to give them cushion money or open bars

Kisii town S£x workers where the business has been booming for a while have been forced to find some other forms of livelihood to survive as the customer decline steadily.


"On good days I could take home Sh6,000 to Sh10,000 a night. Today I hardly get Sh400," says Mary.

Mary, 35, from Homa Bay, moved to Kisii where she had heard that business was booming.

Mary says, she has not paid rent for some time and the landlord has been knocking on her door.


They do their trade mostly in bars, streets and social places but COVID-19 measures have ruined it.



Kisii county has confirmed 22 coronavirus cases, among them seven s£x workers and bar attendants.


They accuse the government of selective amnesia.
"We see the government and unions talk about the plight of teachers and nurses but nobody is talking about us. We are sleeping hungry," Mary says.


They want the government to give them a stipend to cushion them too.
"It can get dire because we have children to fend for. It is will be worse if the President imposes fresh measures," says Irene, who is also a s£x worker.


" No one has provided us with face-masks or sanitiser, yet our trade puts us at high risk of contracting the virus, " she added.


Irene Omondi has been in the trade for nine years, but she is now thinking of quitting for some other work.


Esther, 26, is selling tomatoes on the side to make ends meet.

"I never thought that one day I would move to being a tomato seller while i was working as a s£x vendor, all just to make ends meet," she says.



"S£x money is easy to make and sometimes it is a lot but it doesn't last," she says.


She has now begun to learn to put aside some savings from her new business. Esther makes Sh800 profit from selling tomatoes each day.


This has got her thinking of quitting alcohol and reinventing herself. "I just want to wean myself off the s£x trade and concentrate on business.


There is some sense of satisfaction when you earn money by sweating for it," she says.


Esther says some of her fellow workers are also doing well in selling face-masks.