Rape, low wages: It’s a dog’s life for Nairobi barmaids

 If your salary is Sh7,000 and a man offers you Sh4,000 for sex and he is ready to wait for you to finish your work, then it’s very difficult to say, no - Barmaid Photo: Courtesy

Nairobi West Mall is a huge block where several small pubs morph into one huge watering hole. Seated next to a sewer line, the sharp smell of human waste pierces your nostrils when you walk into the mall.

At the farthest end in a row of small noisy pubs, Emma Mwende works as a barmaid in a small pub that can seat less than 10 patrons. At 27, Mwende still has the exuberance of a high school girl about to break her virginity. Light-skinned and well endowed, Mwende is a favourite of many drinkers. Unlike other pubs where waitresses wear uniforms, Mwende prefers body-hugging dresses that leave little to imagination.

She has been working as a barmaid ever since she left high school, and has been in Nairobi West for the past one and a half years. Beneath her jovial demeanour and flirty nature, Mwende says being a barmaid is probably one of the hardest jobs. 

“I have been an attendant at a clothes stall in town, a waitress at a restaurant, but I keep coming back to this job. As much as other jobs are stable, they don’t pay well,” she says, adding that her employer, a man she met while working in another pub, pays her Sh8,000, but she can make up to Sh2,000 on a good day from tips and drinks bought by patrons but which she cashes in instead of drinking.

Meals are also provided, but it’s the easy, untaxed money besides colluding with alcohol distributors to make dough on the side that makes the job addictive. “The money is good, but the job is one of the worst ever, a lot of bad things happen to barmaids,” she says, explaining that many barmaids leave their workplaces well past midnight, yet in some places, public transport does not operate that late.

Just business

Maryann, a barmaid in Nairobi’s Tassia estate in Eastlands, says the most difficult part of her job is keeping her marriage.

Her former customer married her three years ago and she has changed jobs five times.

“I would have wished to get another daytime and stable job, but selling alcohol makes more money for me, and my husband is a driver, so his income isn’t stable.” Were it not for the money she makes as a barmaid, her hubby would have asked her to quit.

“He met me in a pub and we fell in love. He is jealous and sometimes goes through my phone to check if I am cheating on him. I am lucky because he picks me from my work every day and we walk home together,” says Maryann who works and lives in Pipeline estate not far from Tassia.

Mwende says that getting raped is a constant fear, but most have, “a dedicated boda boda operator who will drop you somewhere safe,” yet bar owners rarely meet the cost of night travel. Jackie, a 26-year-old barmaid was repeatedly raped and beaten by a police officer based in Nairobi. She had just left work and when the officer on patrol arrested and raped her by the roadside.

The cop undressed and raped me

“The policeman removed my panties and raped me. I fought back but he kept on hitting me until I stopped struggling. He continued raping me until I passed out,” reads her statement. As if to rub salt in the fresh wound, she spent the remainder of the night in police cells. And the following morning, the mother of a four-year-old suffered the indignity of being thrown out half-naked.

“In the morning, when I reported the incident to the OCS, he simply laughed it off claiming that I was an epileptic who imagines things.”

Meanwhile, Jackie claims she had visible bruises on her legs and thighs and her face was swollen.

“The OCS asked his officers to throw me out of the station yet I had no proper clothes. I was only wearing a torn T-shirt; I had neither a skirt nor inner wear and could barely walk.”

Jackie alleges that the officers could not let her take her purse and phone which she had left at the counter.

“As a Good Samaritan reached out to me with Sh100 fare, my state began attracting a crowd. Panicking, the police officers rushed me to hospital using one of their patrol vehicles.”

An examination at a women’s hospital in the city revealed heavy bruising on her genitals. She was tested for sexually transmitted diseases and put on medication. But the psychological agony remains. She says she lives in fear, and is contemplating withdrawing the case due to threats from those adversely mentioned in her statement. An almost similar experience is narrated by Terry, another city bar girl.

“I was nearly raped by a customer. He was the last person in the bar and since it was way past 11pm, I had to lock the bar from inside, turn down the music and let the last customer finish his drink.”

She says the man asked for one last drink and also bought her a glass of wine.

“I left the counter and took his beer to his table when he suddenly grabbed me and tore off my blouse. I started screaming and the guards started banging the door. That’s when the man left. He had been buying me wine the entire evening and maybe he thought I wanted him too,” says Terry. A general assumption is that most barmaids also sleep with men for money.

“That is common, but does not apply to everyone. However, if your salary is Sh7,000 and a man offers you Sh4,000 for sex, and he is ready to wait until you finish your work, then it’s very difficult to say no. Many of us who work in pubs are single mothers. We have children and bills to take care of. But sleeping with a client for money is not as bad as going to stand on the streets as a prostitute,” says Wairimu, a barmaid at a club along Outering Road in Nairobi’s Eastlands.

She says they rarely sleep with random men.

“It’s like having a boyfriend who also supports you. It’s not prostitution,” she insists.

Then there are the constant police swoops and arrests for selling beer past the stipulated 11pm.  “I was thrown into a lorry and taken to a police station. One of the officers later in the night released me from the cells, took me to a store and raped me. He then ordered that I be released in the morning,” says a teary waitress in Nairobi West and who was arrested for selling booze after hours.

Her employer, a retired civil servant, took her to hospital for examination and treatment. He tried lodging a complaint in vain. The officer was later transferred to northern Kenya. Contacted by The Nairobian, the senior officer laughed off the accusations, saying if the girl was indeed raped, then she should report to police so that action can be taken.

Apart from paid sex, many barmaids survive on tips as their salaries are withheld when customers take off with the bill. They are also fully responsible for any breakage or loss that occurs under their watch.

“Many men are crafty. They will drink and when you turn your back, walk out never to be seen again. I prefer working in neighbourhood pubs because in such places, the patrons are all well-known unlike in the CBD where you serve different people daily. No barmaid can tell you that she has never had to pay from her own salary, money that clients didn’t pay,” says Caroline, a barmaid at a popular bar off Kimathi Street. To curb loss of money, the club insists that barmaids demand payment before serving drinks.

They are not angels

 Mike Njoroge, a bar owner in Imara Daima, says most barmaids aren’t the angels you might assume they are.

“Many of them are crooks and have to be supervised or they’ll sell their own stock, steal from your customers and soon, you won’t have a business,” says Njoroge.

On the issues of payment he says that, “There is no way you can pay someone Sh15,000 when graduate teachers sometimes earn less. You also pay them according to how the business performs. We are in this business for profit. There are two girls who have worked for me for the past three years. Others come for a week and leave. If you treat me and my customers well, I will treat you well,” adds Njoroge.

A regular patron at Westend Bar in Nairobi West, David Ochieng says he has been served by the same barmaids since he cleared university in 1994.

“They know all their customers’ needs and do their job well. They are mature and have no time for hanky-panky. I guess even their employer is happy with their work,” says Ochieng.

Love brewed on the bar counter

But it’s not always gloom and sob stories from barmaids. One barmaid by the name of Amina, met the love of her life who turned around her life two years ago in Embakasi. The man, a manager at a motor vehicle firm, was having marital problems and had just split from his wife.

He fell in love with the barmaid, married her, and bought the pub she was working for. The woman is now a manager at the pub she used to work for, and has also joined a local university.