Police are seeking two women who have been implicated in a major child sex trade in Maai Mahiu trading centre, 30 km from Naivasha town.
Following an exposé by the BBC, officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) summoned two women who featured in the story and recorded statements as they sought the two main suspects behind the illegal trade.
This came as child activists in the town admitted that sex involving minors was rife in the trading centre, with long-distance drivers being the main culprits.
In the exposé, two women known as ‘madams’ have been selling the minors, some as young as 13 years, to long-distance drivers who spent the night at the center while in or out of nearby countries.
According to Naivasha DCIO Isaac Kiama, they had launched investigations into the trade that had been going on for a couple of years.
Kiama said that the two main suspects captured on camera had since gone into hiding, though police were optimistic that they would nab them.
“We have, however, managed to record statements from two other women who featured in the video, and we are going for the two main suspects,” he said.
Kiama called on members of the public to volunteer information that could lead to the arrest of the two women and others involved in the illegal trade.
“It’s a matter of time before we catch up with all those involved in this illegal trade, and we shall not spare anyone in the crackdown,” he said.
On his part, the chair of the Naivasha GBV cluster group, John Kinuthia, welcomed the move by police, noting that cases of sex trafficking involving minors in the trading center were on the rise.
He said that some of the minors had been ferried from Uganda on the promise that they would get jobs as house-helps, only to be turned into sex-slaves.
“In the past, we have rescued minors from Mai Mahiu center who had been sexually abused, and it's time that those behind this illicit trade were fully dealt with,” he said.
Kinuthia blamed the high levels of poverty in the town, coupled with the high number of en transit drivers, for the rise in cases of child sex.
“Some of the drivers have been taking advantage of the high unemployment and poverty levels to abuse the minors and women in the Mai Mahiu and Longonot areas,” he said