Nairobi - Peninah
Wanjiru wasn't really one to take chances.
Her friends said the 35-year-old Kenyan sex worker was
careful how she conducted business at her home in Majengo, an
informal settlement on the outskirts of Nairobi, where she only
allowed clients in for a "quickie".
But on the night of May 7, a curfew imposed to stem the
spread of the coronavirus forced Wanjiru to allow a client to
stay over. Some hours later, she was found lying in a pool of
blood. She died before help could arrive.
A post-mortem report found she had been stabbed multiple
times in the chest and stomach and had suffered head injuries.
Police are still investigating the crime.
Women engaging in sex work have always been more vulnerable
to violence but a surge in physical attacks and killings of sex
workers in Kenya since Covid-19 restrictions came into force has
sent a chill through the community.
This spike in violence was attributed not only to clients
attacking sex workers but also by the police and other community
members who blame them for spreading the coronavirus.
"It's really frightening what we are seeing happening across
the country," said Peninah Mwangi, executive director of the Bar
Hostess Empowerment and Support Programme, a sex worker-led
organisation with 10,000 members in Kenya.
"Our girls are really scared. We are hearing of women going
with clients, only to find their bodies dumped. In one case, a
sex worker was killed by her client's family when she went to
his house. Even so, they are more scared of hunger than murder."
Lockdowns are forcing desperate sex workers to disregard
usual safety norms to make a living, exposing them to increased
violence - and even murder, according to sex worker groups.
'EASY TARGET AT A TIME OF CRISIS'
With brothels and guest houses closed, sex workers in
countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Senegal and Botswana, are being
compelled to work alone, risking their personal safety on the
streets, in clients' residences or even in their own homes.
This has led to increased violence from clients, who are
often demanding lower rates and more risqué services and
attacking sex workers if they refuse.
The Kenya Sex Workers Alliance (KESWA), a coalition of
around 30 sex worker rights groups, said it has documented six
murders of sex workers since the east African nation imposed a
dusk-to-dawn curfew on March 27.
"We have security tips such as don't go with clients who
appear suspicious, inform someone of your location and don't go
to a client's place or take him home," said Philester Abdalla,
KESWA's national coordinator.
"But people are so broke and desperate that they are not
following the rules. We have children who need food, landlords
who are demanding rent," she said, adding that she was currently
sheltering five evicted sex workers in her home.
KESWA has recorded 80 incidences of violence against sex
workers by clients, neighbours and police in the first of the
month of the pandemic compared to a monthly average of 25
incidents before Covid-19 hit Kenya in mid-March, she added.
From Senegal in the west to Botswana in the south, shutdowns
aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus across Africa
have severely hit millions of sex workers who already live on
the margins of society, according to campaigners.
Customers are staying away for fear of contracting the
virus, and restrictions on movement, shortages of transport and
closures of bars and brothels have left sex workers struggling
to survive.
Most are excluded from government relief packages and many
have been unable to pay their rent - or evicted after brothels
where they stay shut down - leaving them homeless.
Already criminalised, stigmatised, and blamed for the high
prevalence of AIDS in Africa, sex workers have also become more
susceptible to punitive measures by police enforcing Covid-19
regulations in many countries.
Grace Kamau, regional coordinator for the African Sex
Workers Alliance, said police in countries such as Uganda, Kenya
Ivory Coast, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa, were raiding
brothels and bars, assaulting and arresting sex workers.
"Sex workers are an easy target in a time of crisis. Clients
feel they can take advantage of them, and law enforcement think
they can use them to show that they are implementing Covid-19
measures," said Kamau.
"Even the community is blaming them. Sex workers are being
forced to work in their homes during the day which attracts
attention ... there have been incidences of mob justice where
neighbours have attacked sex workers."
In Kenya, about 800 sex workers were arrested over the last
two months, with about 400 placed in quarantine centres, accused
of violating social distancing restrictions, according to KESWA.
While in neighbouring Uganda, campaigners said sex workers
were being unfairly targeted due to their association with truck
drivers - some of who had tested positive. There were 117
arrests of sex workers over a 2 week period, they said.
NO ACCESS TO HIV TREATMENT
Stay-at-home orders have also left sex workers unable to
visit health clinics and access essential services for sexually
transmitted infections (STIs), say health experts.
Many of those living with HIV were unable to get the
life-saving treatment they needed - potentially putting their
compromised immune systems at risk if they contracted Covid-19.
Female sex workers are 13 times more likely to become
infected with HIV than adults in the general population,
according to UNAIDS, with more than 50% of sex workers in some
countries in eastern and southern Africa living with HIV.
A survey of 884 sex workers in Kenya conducted by KESWA
found more than 65% of respondents could not get condoms and
medication for HIV, such as anti-retroviral drugs, due to price
hikes on public transport linked to COVID-19 restrictions.
"Some sex workers are scared to go to the clinics to collect
their medication for fear of contracting Covid-19," said Olive
Mumba, executive director of the Eastern Africa National
Networks of AIDS and Health Service Organisations.
"For others, they do not have the transport or even the
money for the transport. They would rather spend the few
shillings they have on food than to fetch medicines."
Mumba said of particular concern were undocumented migrant
sex workers in countries such Botswana, who regularly returned
to their homes in neighbouring Zimbabwe to collect medication
but were now forced off treatment due to borders being closed.
"We are very concerned," said Ed Ngoksin, technical advisor
on community responses and key populations at the Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
"From a programme's perspective, lockdowns restrict the
ability of community-based organisations to deliver services for
sex workers, resulting in a lack of access to prevention,
testing/treatment and care services."
He said the pandemic was having a "catastrophic impact" on
communities such as sex workers and threatening to derail
hard-fought progress against HIV, TB and malaria, diseases which
kill millions annually.
The Global Fund is providing $1 billion to help countries
respond to the Covid-19, including funding sex worker-led groups
to provide temporary shelters, food aid, and the home delivery
of anti-retroviral drugs, Ngoskin added.
PART OF THE SOLUTION
Many sex worker organisations are rallying members to fund
raise and provide food packages for more vulnerable peers, while
others are providing shelter to colleagues who have been evicted
or physically abused by their partners.
They are also providing them with a list of measures to help
protect themselves from Covid-19 - from insisting clients
sanitise their hands and conducting mobile money transactions,
to avoiding kissing and positions with face-to-face contact.
The Global Network of Sex Work Projects and UNAIDS have
urged governments to support sex workers by giving them access
to national social protection schemes, emergency aid if needed,
and end evictions, brothel raids and arrests.
Sex workers said they could also play an active role in
stemming the pandemic if they were given the support they need.
"Sex workers are indispensable allies in securing widespread
adoption of effective public health measures," said Daisy Nakato
Namakula, national coordinator of Uganda Network of Sex Worker
Organisations.
"When sex workers are empowered and their human rights are
respected, they can help communities rapidly adopt protective
measures — we have seen this with HIV, and it should be the
approach of Covid-19 as well. Instead, we are being attacked and
discriminated against."