U.S. Department of State 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report - Kenya

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 inspectors, police, and district child labor committees in two programs to combat the worst forms of child labor conducted by international partners; some of these children were victims of trafficking. During the reporting period, the Kenyan embassy in Riyadh turned away and failed to properly assist Kenyan domestic servants who reported cases of mistreatment; the government, however, did assist with the repatriation of these women.

Prevention

The Ministry of Home Affairs and UNICEF conducted joint research on child sex tourism and commercial sexual exploitation of children on the coast that underpinned a Kenyan government report in December 2006. In response to the study's findings, steps to address human trafficking were incorporated into the Ministry's annual work plan. In early December, government ministries formed a National Trafficking Task Force to draft a National Plan of Action. The Tourism Ministry in early 2006 began requiring owners of private villas in tourist beach areas to register their properties as hotels and submit to inspections; by August, 1,200 villas were registered. Officials from the Ministries of Home Affairs, Tourism, and Labor participated in 20 trainings for hotels that are already signatories to the code. The Ministry of Labor reviewed the contracts of approximately 600 Kenyans traveling to work abroad and provided workers' rights counseling to those appearing for approval in person. As a result of the increased training opportunities, the Kenyan media, especially the government-owned Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, noticeably improved the quantity and quality of coverage of human trafficking cases.