2007 Trafficking in Persons Report - Center for Women Policy Studies

K E N Y A
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victims to NGOs. In 2006, the government provided
financial assistance to victims trafficked abroad.
Some local governments provided some in-kind
assistance to NGO trafficking shelters.
Prevention
The government conducted active public awareness
efforts. In 2006, more than 1,900 articles on
trafficking were published in state-run national and
regional newspapers and 800 segments were broadcast
on radio and television. Surveys show significant
public awareness of the dangers of trafficking.
Law enforcement officials met with community
groups to discuss trafficking. Law enforcement
regularly inspected labor recruitment and tourism
agencies to verify their legitimacy. Kazakhstan has
not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.
KENYA (Tier 2 Watch List)
Kenya is a source, transit, and destination country
for men, women, and children trafficked for the
purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual
exploitation. Kenyan children are trafficked within
the country for domestic servitude, street vending,
agricultural labor, and commercial sexual exploitation,
including involvement in the coastal sex tourism
industry. Kenyan men, women, and girls are
trafficked to the Middle East, other African nations,
Europe, and North America for domestic servitude,
enslavement in massage parlors and brothels, and
forced manual labor. Foreign employment agencies
facilitate and profit from the trafficking of Kenyan
nationals to Middle Eastern nations, notably
Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., and Lebanon, as well as
Germany. Chinese, Indian, and Pakistani women
reportedly transit Nairobi en route to exploitation
in Europe’s commercial sex trade. Brothels and
massage parlors in Nairobi employ foreign women,
some of whom are likely trafficked.
The Government of Kenya does not fully comply
with the minimum standards for the elimination of
trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts
to do so. Kenya is placed on Tier 2 Watch List for a
second consecutive year due to the lack of evidence
of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking
over the last year. The government should
sensitize law enforcement officials throughout the
country to trafficking crimes, and it should push for
greater investigations and prosecutions of traffickers.
It should also pass and implement comprehensive
anti-trafficking legislation; institute trafficking
awareness training for diplomats posted overseas;
and continue its positive and expanding efforts to
address child sex tourism on the coast.
Prosecution
The government failed to punish acts of trafficking
during the reporting period, but showed increased
law enforcement activity in the beginning of 2007.
Kenya does not prohibit all forms of trafficking,
though it criminalizes the trafficking of children and
adults for sexual exploitation through its Sexual
Offenses Act, enacted in July 2006. This law
prescribes penalties that are sufficiently stringent and
commensurate with those for rape. However, Kenya
lacks laws against labor trafficking. The Attorney
General’s Office is reviewing a draft comprehensive
anti-trafficking bill. The Kenya Police Service’s
Human Trafficking Unit conducted no investigations
into trafficking cases during the reporting period.
There were no trafficking prosecutions or convictions
reported over the last year. A newly created community
policing and child protection police unit,
however, in February 2007 obtained indictments
— its first indictments — of two men for allegedly
trafficking two Ethiopian minors to Kenya for
domestic servitude. Corruption among law enforcement
authorities and other public officials hampered
efforts to bring traffickers to justice. In August 2006,
two police officers in Trans-Nzoia were suspended
from duty for complicity in trafficking, but were
reinstated without further disciplinary action. In
June 2006, the Tourism Minister led police and other
officials on a raid of a resort hotel suspected of hosting
children in prostitution; two young girls were
removed from the premises. Police reportedly also
investigated trafficking cases in the coastal and Rift
Valley regions, but further information on resulting
arrests or prosecutions was not provided.
Protection
While the government did not provide trafficking
victims shelter or access to medical or social
services, it did improve its assistance to children
facing labor exploitation. Victims are encouraged to
assist with investigations and prosecutions, but are
usually deported before the investigation concludes
due to budget constraints, insufficient capacity,
and the absence of legal statutes under which to
prosecute traffickers. Police also treat some sexually
exploited children as criminals rather than victims.
In 2006, City Council social services departments
in Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu established
shelters to rehabilitate street children vulnerable
to forced labor and sexual abuse; shelter staff need
training in recognizing and documenting trafficking
cases. In 2006, 5,026 children were removed
from labor and 4,178 at-risk children were kept in
school through the involvement of labor inspec-