The secret shooting of the BBC Africa Eye exhibits the “Madames” of Maai Mahiu

An investigation into the eye of the BBC Africa revealed how women, known as “madam”, involved children as young as 13 in prostitution in Kenya.

In the city of Transit of Maai Mahiu, in the Kenya Rift Valley, trucks and trucks beat the streets that transported goods and people across the country in Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The key transport center, just 50 km (31 miles) east of the capital, Nairobi, is known for prostitution, but it is also a farm for sexual abuse.

Two infiltration investigators, pretending to be sex workers who wish to learn to become madam, spent months earlier this year infiltrating the sex trade in the city.

Their secret shooting reveals two different women who say that it is illegal and then presents investigators to minor girls in the sex industry.

The BBC gave all its evidence to the Kenyan police in March. The BBC thinks that the Madames have moved since then. Police said the women and young girls we filmed could not be traced. To date, there has been no arrests.

The convictions are rare in Kenya. For successful proceedings, police need children’s testimonies. Often vulnerable minors are too afraid to testify.

The granular images of the BBC filmed in the street in the dark have shown a woman, who is called Nyambura, laughing by saying: “They are still children, so it is easy to handle them by simply giving them candy.”

“Prostitution is a rent harvest in Maai Mahiu; the truckers feed it essentially. And that is how we benefit from it. It was standardized at Maai Mahiu,” she said, adding that she was as young as 13 years old, who has already worked “for six months.

“It becomes very risky when you are dealing with minors. You cannot just get them out openly in town. I only tell them at night in great secrecy,” said Nyambura.

The act of prostitution by a consenting adult is not explicitly criminalized under the Kenyan national law, but it is prohibited by many municipal regulations. It is not forbidden to Maai Mahiu, who is part of the county of Nakuru.

Under the penal code, it is illegal to experience profits from prostitution, either as a sex worker, either as a third party facilitating or taking advantage of prostitution.

The trafficking or sale of minors under the age of 18 leads to a prison sentence ranging from 10 years to life.

When asked if customers wore condoms, Nyambura said that she generally ensured that they had protection but that strange was not.

“Some children want to earn more (so don’t use them). Some are forced (not to use them),” she said.

During another meeting, she led the investigator infiltrated into a house where three young girls sit huddled on a sofa, another on a hard -to -back chair.

Nyambura then left the play, giving the investigator the opportunity to speak to girls alone.

They described being mistreated several times for sex, on a daily basis.

“Sometimes you have sex with several people. Customers force you to do unimaginable things,” said one of the girls.

There are no recent statistics on the number of children forced to work in the Kenya sex industry. In 2012, the country’s report of the American State Department on Human Rights practices in Kenya cited an estimate of 30,000, a figure derived from the Kenyan government and now a non -governmental organization (NGO) (NGO) (NGO), to eradicate prostitution of children in Kenya.

Other studies have focused on specific areas, especially along the country’s coast – known for its tourist stations. A 2022 report for the NGO World Fund to end modern slavery found that nearly 2,500 children were forced to work in the counties of Kilifi and Kwale.

A second infiltrated investigator won the confidence of a woman who was called Cheptoo and had several meetings with her.

She said that the sale of young girls meant that she could “earn her living and be comfortable”.

“You are doing this kind of business in great secrecy because it is illegal,” she said.

“If someone says he wants a young girl, I ask them to pay me. We also have our regulars who always come back for them.”

Cheptoo took the infiltrated investigator to a club to meet four of his daughters. The youngest said she was 13 years old. The others said they were 15 years old.

She talked about the benefit she achieves, saying that for each 3,000 Kenyan shillings ($ 23; £ 17) that the girls deliver, her share was 2,500 shillings ($ 19; £ 14).

During another meeting, in a house in Maai Mahiu, Cheptoo left the investigator infiltrated alone with two minor girls.

One of them told her that she had, on average, sex with five men a day.

When asked what had happened if she refused to have sex without a condom, she said that she had no choice.

“I must (have sex without condom). I will be chased away, and I have nowhere to run. I am an orphan.”

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Kenya’s sexual industry is a complex and troubled world where men and women are involved in the facilitation of children’s prostitution.

We do not know how many children are forced to work with sex in Maai Mahiu, but in this small town of around 50,000 people, it is easy to find them.

A former sex worker, known as “little girl”, now takes refuge in Maai Mahiu for girls who have escaped sexual abuse.

The 61 -year -old man worked in the sex industry for 40 years – first in the street at the start of their twenties. She was pregnant and had her three young children with her after fled her husband due to domestic violence.

At her wooden kitchen table in a bright living room at the front of her house, she presented the BBC to four young women who were all forced to work by the Madames at Maai Mahiu when they were children.

Each girl shared similar stories of broken families or mistreatment at home – they came to Maai Mahiu to escape, only to be violently abused.

Michelle described how, at 12, she lost her parents against HIV and was expelled in the streets where she met a man who gave her somewhere to live and started to mistreat her sexually.

“I literally had to pay it in kind to get down. I reached my limit, but I had no one,” she said.

Two years later, she was approached by a woman who turned out to be a Madame in Maai Mahiu and forced her to enter into sex work.

Lilian, who is now 19, has also lost her parents at a very young age. She ended up with an uncle who filmed her in the shower and sold the images to her friends. Voyeurism quickly turned into rape.

“It was my worst day. I was 12 then.”

When she escaped, she was raped again by a truck driver who took her to Maai Mahiu. It was here, like Michelle, where she was approached by a woman who forced her to work.

The short life of young women was fed by violence, neglect and abuse.

Now, housed by Baby Girl, they learn new skills – two in a photography studio and two in a beauty salon.

They also help Baby Girl with his awareness work in the community.

The county of Nakuru has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in Kenya, and Baby Girl, supported by the USAID USAID help agency, is on a mission to educate people on unprotected sex risks.

She has an office at Karagita Community Health Center, near Lake Naivasha, where she works to provide condoms and advice.

However, with the decision of the American president Donald Trump to withdraw funding from the USAID, his awareness programs are about to stop.

“From September, we will be unemployed,” she told BBC World Service, adding how worried she was the young women and girls who depend on her.

“You see how vulnerable these children are. How would they survive themselves? They still heal.”

The American government has not responded to comments in this investigation into the probable impact of its financing discounts. USAID officially closed its doors last month.

For the moment, Lilian focuses on learning photography and the recovery of abuses.

“I’m no longer afraid, because baby girl is there for me,” she said. “It helps us bury the past.”