The county government of Kiambu has launched a clean-up exercise to rid Thika Town of its infamous sex workers.
Thika West Deputy County Commissioner Mbogo Mathioya said authorities are “determined to get rid of these women who are giving our town a very bad name and image”.
According to Mathioya, “the law simply discourages public display of body parts as wares of trade”.
“We are just sanitising the town. The serious influx of these ladies of late has to be managed,” the deputy commissioner said, adding that they won’t negotiate with the sex workers.
Mathioya argued that the influx of sex workers in Thika town has coincided with an increase in the crime rate.
“The reason we are going after this trade is simply a security one. There has been a serious influx of these women on our streets. Cases of robberies, spiking of drinks, muggings and extortion have risen and these women contribute to more than 70 percent of the town’s crime,” he said as quoted by the Nation.
The commissioner further claimed some of the sex workers help serious criminals hide, while others are accomplices in crime, where they pose as sex workers, spy, raid and transport contraband.
“These women targeting males surround you after you have withdrawn your cash from ATMs and one of them accuses you of refusing to pay her the previous night for illicit sexual service rendered. She would claim about Sh5,000 plus interest … You end up robbed,” Mathioya explained.
He however acknowledged that the crackdown is being undermined by corruption.
“These women appear well organised because, in some instances, after we arrest them and take them to police stations and the courts, mobilisation of cash is done so fast that [soon after, they are released],” he said.
Mathioya insisted that women who openly display themselves as sex workers in the streets will continue to be arrested, charged and convicted.
