Signs of progress

Yes, being in Kenya is great. But for me, it is not for the obvious reasons: not the safari’s, it’s not only the beautiful nature less than 30 minutes outside Nairobi. Europeans tend to think that when you live in Kenya, it’s a 24 hour safari-holiday. Nothing is less true.

It’s because in Kenya where I have a live view on social and political change in Africa. You can witness it on the spot: quite often, there is change for the better.

Recently, it was worldwide sex workers day. The 7000 or more known sex workers known in Kenya’s capital Nairobi took to the streets to say that they are ready to pay tax.  Prostitution is still seen as a crime in Kenya. The funny thing: in a country where women are often seen as minor creatures, not the consumers of prostitution are wrong but the practicing girls are wrong.

Now for me, born and bred in one of the most liberal countries in the world, tax-paying prostitutes don’t make headlines anymore. In Holland the girls even have their own trade union. Prostitution has been recognized as a profession as long as I can remember. It has brought the ladies a lot of benefits: health care, hygiene, security status, safety and a voice in the public debate.

These ladies are doing their jobs under harsh circumstances and women have used the freedom to express  their needs in public, like what’s happening now in Kenya. That culture of debate brought us where we are now: we are in the Top 10 economies of the world, the Dutch are among the happiest people in the world and most of all men and have equal rights and even prostitutes are decent citizens.

With their message that they are ready to pay tax, the Kenyan women are implying legalization of the oldest profession in the world. With a reason: these ladies are taking a lot of risks each time they join a client. Here in Kenya, these ladies are often treated as second rang citizens, or even less than a street boy. Being a sex worker and female, makes you the lowest of the lowest in Kenyan society.

Yet, this sector is contributing a lot of money to Kenya’s economy, the money the girls are removing from the pockets of the seeking men, is being pumped back in the Kenyan economy through school fees, vegetables, tourism etc.

A lot of African girls have children at a very young age. In Kenya the situation is not different. A lot of guys seem to leave when babies arrive and as a consequence a lot of girls have to survive single handed as a single mom, being an outcast to the rest of the family. A relationship has a big practical component: the man has to bring in the money for the family. If that income disappears, the often not educated mother is on her own. The child she had on a very young age, forced her out of school.

Consequence: Quite some ladies ‘choose’ for the dangerous life as a sex worker. If the money is not there, I know stories of ladies that are prostituting themselves in sex for food relationships.

But the change I am seeing is, the attitude and the awareness of the people exposed. What I’ve seen over the last years is the growing awareness among Kenyans of their rights. They are ahead of the crowd. Kenya’s sex workers are coming up for their own rights: they are sick of the risk of being harassed, being raped, not being paid. No risk to be taken for a ride, not to talk about the risk of getting HIV-infected, because of the no-condom-is-better-and-i-am-the-man-so-you-just-listen-to-me-attitude that a lot of men have. And there is no right whatsoever once they report crime being done against them: in the end they are the ones being wrong being a women and being a prostitute gives you basically no rights.

Legalisation of prostitution is not solving the problem. Of course the high unemployment among Kenyans and the high percentage of people that live under the poverty level, is still way to high. Legalizing of prostitution is not the solution, but will for sure contribute to more human circumstances and professionalizing the profession.  But, Kenyans have a long road to go: what is in between change and the people who can really bring this change is lack of education, traditional views, narrow mindedness of society itself… and time.

PS: I am aware that this is not THE story. The are a lot of reasons why the girls won’t get their rights overnight. Political interest not being the last one. But the fact that these ladies are getting to the streets, is a sign of changing awareness.

Which moral do you choose?

This is a follow up on my post a fews days ago (Please find it here) about Kenya’s invitation to invite Sudan president al-Bashir on the promulgation of Kenya’s New Constitution. Many things have been said about it, I enjoy the Freedom to add. The things we don’t see are what politicians are reading. I am 100 percent sure that Machiavelli’s The Prince is on the desk of at least some of the Kenyan leaders. One of the things that Machiavelli talks about is moral. There the monopolised moral by the churche/religion in this world and there is the moral with the meaning of doing what is good for the masses. Apparently, Kenyan politicians’ moral seems to be the Machiavellian moral, in this case (or at least that is what they say). They invited al-Bashir for the greater good: peace in Southern Sudan. In Africa quite often, there seems to be a conflict between the religious moral and what I just called he Machiavellian moral. It seems that a lot of news media and word leaders use that against Africa. They choose the moral they want and start condemning who ever they want. But if there is a ‘real’ moral, and countries and organisations garding it, why do we still have Joseph Koni, al-Bashir and that type of leaders. We should talk about this with a glass of nice my friend. Have a moralistic and good day !

yo' ya.. giv' me a slumhug

Click here for Daily Nation article Kibera

Gambling Machines in Caprivi Strip

On my trip through Namibia’s Caprivi Strip, I stopped at a small coffee joint to satisfy my caffeine-needs. In the end, I am still a Dutch. It was not my first time that I visited this small place in one of the poorest areas of beautiful Namibia. The type of area where people die of malaria because they can’t find transport to the nearest hospital or can’t spend two dollar to safe their own baby’s life. On the outside, nothing had changed. Still the dark orange/brown red-earthy color. Inside still the slow service and the super friendly girl who looks like she doesn’t need anybody as a customer today. Yes: everything looked as usual: I was even happy with the absence of Take Away Coffees. The mugs are on the way, like two years ago, I was told. But I observed something new there in the far dark corner and it made me angry, actually: it made me mad. I saw two gambling machines. I asked who had put these things there, at first nobody could tell me. I noticed the Russian signs and buttons on these what must once have been flashy and bling-blinging Mokba-one-armed-bandits. I could almost smell the wodka. After asking around a bit, some guys told me that a white guy had put them there and someone from the Ministry of Finance was the owner. Now that is what I call development! I took my instant coffee. Outside I found these young guys begging, hiding their small glue bottles in their hands when you approached them and I imagined how the future for these guys would look like if the gambling machines would be connected soon. The locals seemed not very interested in the machines. Some of them told me that all in a lot of shebeens (local ‘drinking places’ ) these machines had been placed recently. I want to stop here and leave the cynical thinking up to the cynics. Hope to meet you on the road! Have a nice day! And keep exploring!

[inspic=143,left,,thumb](New York, October 15, 2008) – The Kenyan government and international partners should strongly support the call by the Waki commission investigating post-election violence to create a special tribunal to end Kenya’s cycle of impunity, Human Rights Watch said today.
“The Waki commission has done an admirable job describing the causes of the violence and assembling evidence,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Now the politicians need to set up the special tribunal it recommends. Justice is crucial for Kenya’s stability.”

The report of the Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence, headed by Justice Philip Waki, was published on October 15, 2008. The commission concluded that politicians on all sides had organized and funded attacks on supporters of their opponents. The inquiry also found that security forces responded inappropriately, using excessive force against civilians, intervening to have allies released from custody and failing to investigate individuals responsible for the violence. Human Rights Watch said that a complete overhaul of Kenya’s corrupt and abusive police force, as recommended by the Waki commission, is long overdue….

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