Peninah Mwangi (pictured), the Bar Hostess Empowerment and Support Programme (BHESP) Executive Director, has had a rough 18 years championing the rights of commercial sex workers.
Peninah says that because of her work, men have shunned her and even called her names.
Friends and relatives too have faulted her for what they claim has wasted her degree in sociology and literature.
Peninah, who has opted to remain a single mother, says: “Men wonder why I care about sex workers. Many men fear socialising with me, but what they don’t understand is that it is out of our good work that they are offered good services on the streets.”
The idea behind BHESP came up in 1998 after she witnessed the harassment of underpaid bar women and sex workers by their employers and customers.
“They were victims of HIV/Aids and also faced lots of violence. Some of them were gang-raped and killed. Since 2014, six sex workers have been killed in Nairobi. Three of the cases involved the police. We are still demanding justice and punishment of the perpetrators of the crimes,” she says, adding that at times, men face the wrath of sex workers, but such cases are referred elsewhere.
