Feature Story

During the more than a decade that Carolyne Njoroge worked as a sex worker, she never saw such violence against her peers. Now working full time for the Kenya Sex Workers Alliance (KESWA), she said that the COVID-19 lockdown threw everyone into disarray.

“At the outbreak, no one was prepared for the coronavirus,” she said. “It’s not like the rains that we know and can prepare for.”

The government’s lockdown measures to limit the spread of the virus—a dusk-to-dawn curfew and shutting of bars and nightclubs—have left sex workers in Kenya to either work during the day and be very visible or to break the curfew at night.

So far, KESWA has reported that more than 50 sex workers have been forcefully quarantined during the early days of the pandemic, and women have been arrested for not adhering to the social distancing rules and obligatory mask-wearing.

“How do you expect women to adhere to these measures when they cannot feed themselves and their families and many of them don’t even have homes?” Ms Njoroge asked.

Kenya does not criminalize sex work. However, the law forbids “living on the earnings of sex work” and “soliciting or importuning for immoral purposes,” which Ms Njoroge said means that the women work in a grey area. “It’s a very hostile work environment and sex workers are the first to be violated because they say our work is not work,” she said.

Phelister Abdalla, a sex worker living with HIV and KESWA’s National Coordinator, said, “Sex workers need to be protected, but if we are told to stay at home we need to be given food.” 

The government has not released funds or directed aid to sex workers, so KESWA started a fundraiser to dispatch hygiene packs, which include hand sanitizer, masks and menstrual pads, as well as food baskets.

Ms Njoroje said that 100 sex workers from the informal settlements had benefitted. “Our challenge is keeping up with demand, so we are reaching out to others for help,” she said.  

Ms Abdalla said that fighting the pandemic together is key. “If we want to end COVID-19, we should not be judged by the type of job we do,” she said. “We are first and foremost Kenyans, so treat all of us equally.”

Fifty-seven Kenyan civil society and nongovernmental organizations, including KESWA, drafted an advisory note to the Kenyan Government to urge it to put in place safety nets to cushion the communities and people who cannot afford to not work. They also urged them to stop security forces from enforcing measures around social distancing and curfews. The note adds, “We cannot use a “one size fits all” approach for COVID-19” and calls upon the United Nations leadership to help safeguard the progress.

The Kenyan Government, through the National AIDS and STI Control Programme (NASCOP), in partnership with county governments, implementing partners and donors continues to work to ensure the continuity of KP service delivery during the confinement measures. NASCOP issued technical guidance to all services including information, education and communication materials e.g. posters, setting up virtual coordination platforms, capacity building of service providers on HIV in the context of COVID-19 and they have instituted advocacy efforts to raise resources to ensure that service providers, including outreach teams, and Key Population led groups have personal protective equipment (PPE) and sanitizers. Mobile dispensing services for people who use drugs and tailored outreaches have been established to enhance service delivery along with the formation of virtual psychosocial support groups distribution of food baskets to the very vulnerable and help/hotlines for violence response have been sustained.

UNAIDS collaborates with governments to ensure that international human rights law are respected, protected and fulfilled, without discrimination, in line with state obligations, including in times of emergency.