Commercial sex worker’s paradise: Mlolongo’s Madharau Street is 24-hour economy

Saturdays are the busiest and most expensive days, with most industrial workers having been paid their weekly wages

When you visit Mlolongo, you wouldn’t miss Madharau Street, a stretch occupied by commercial sex workers. The most common business here is wines and spirits stores, miraa dens and butcheries selling meat, from God knows where.

The name Madharau allegedly came about from commercial sex workers’ ill treatment of men of little means who sought their service for a pittance.  The men always ended up saying, “hawa wasichana wanaangalia watu na madharau,” and the name ‘madharau’ (spite) stuck.