Tukiwaambia wakenya hamna akili mnabisha yaaan mpaka mnakodisha wake zenu kwa wanaume wengine
Al Jazeera
See this story on our app
VIEW IN APP
Live
Sign up
Open the menu
Features
|
Prostitution
Poverty drives some Kenyans to rent out their wives
Poverty and unpredictable tourism industry forcing men on the east coast to send spouses into prostitution.
Kwale Kenya
Communities living by the coast depend mostly on tourism for their living [Mohamed Aligab/Al Jazeera]
By Osman Osman
Published On 28 Mar 2018
28 Mar 2018
Kwale, Kenya – It’s a cloudy Sunday morning in Kenya’s Kwale county and Sande Ramadan just woke up to get ready for another weekend of work.
Wearing a green vest and khaki shorts, he washes his face and proceeds to the living room where his wife Janet Wambui serves him breakfast.
“Thanks for waking me up, I hate being late for my client,” the dreadlocked father of three tells his wife. “She asked me to be with her until next weekend,” he adds as he sips black tea.
Keep reading
list of 4 items
list 1 of 4
Sisters in support: Decriminalising sex work from inside Kampala brothels
list 2 of 4
‘I get scared that I’m just dreaming and I’m still trapped there’
list 3 of 4
Bangladesh to monitor TikTok after girls lured by traffickers
list 4 of 4
US Supreme Court upholds curb on overseas AIDS funding
end of list
Ramadan is a male sex worker.
Wambui, his tall dark-skinned wife, works in the same industry. She came back home two nights ago after spending 10 days with a German tourist in an expensive cottage house, a few kilometres from Maweni village where the couple resides.
Ramadan and Wambui have been married for 20 years now.
But it wasn’t always like this. One day in 2006, Ramadan was hawking clothes to tourists along Diani Beach in Kwale town, 30km southwest of Mombasa, when a German tourist approached him. He wanted a lady to spend some time with until his holiday ended.
The 37-year-old, who speaks fluent German and teaches his wife the language, promised the man he would introduce him to his sister.
“My husband came home that evening and asked me if I can act as his sister and take up the offer. After a few days of deliberation, I agreed,” says Wambui, 38, sitting near Ramadan while tightening her black turban.
Wambui saw how life changed for other women who entered prostitution. She was a housewife who depended on Ramadan’s income, which was too little.
“Life was tough for us. My husband’s unpredictable income was not enough and when he asked me to accept, I had no choice,” she says.
The family can now afford three meals a day and the children’s school fees.
Poverty and unpredictable tourism industry forcing men on the east coast to send spouses into prostitution.
www.aljazeera.com
Advertisement