Men caught with their pants down on ‘K’ Street

By Kiundu Waweru

By day, the basements in many of Nairobi’s lofty buildings on Koinange Street are the motorist’s best friends. You are assured of security when you park your car down there.

But come darkness and the basements evolve into playgrounds for fiends. Not surprisingly, the drama starts in the infamous ‘K’ Street.

Sex workers, who are synonymous with the street, have devised a clever way to make an extra shilling.

A chat with taxi drivers who operate from the street elicits tales of illicit dealings when darkness descends on the city.

Job, a taxi driver who has seen it all, recalls his first encounter with the seamy goings-on. "At around 2am I was attracted to a commotion there," he says pointing to a building that houses the offices of many respectable companies and businesses.

"When I went to investigate, I found two Koinange Street girls screaming obscenities to two cops, whom they accused of failing to honour a deal."

Job later learnt that the girls had lured two men in a car to the building’s basement assuring them that it was a safe and private place.

But just after the two undressed, two police officers showed up and threatened to arrest them for performing indecent acts in a public place.

"The men knew that the cops’ only reason for turning up in a well secured basement was money and so they handed them all they had. The problem was that it was only Sh1,000 and the cops were unwilling to share it with the girls," he says.

Since then, Job has established that many sex workers on the street have the cellphone numbers of policemen on the beat in that area. After luring men into the basements, they discreetly ‘flash’ them.

"When a man is caught with his pants down, he will give anything not to be exposed. The racket also involves security guards manning the buildings, Job says.

The plan works so well because the victims are made to believe that they are saving on money for a lodging. The risk of being caught in a compromising situation in the car is also removed. The men are enticed with the promise of pleasure on the cheap only for them to lose fortunes.

City council askaris

Another cab driver says he was once hired by two girls around City Market to pick up two cops and drive them to Koinange Street where one of the girls pointed to a building and told to the cops, "Leo action iko hapa, tutawapigia simu" before they sashayed off sipping from a water bottle.

The ‘bottled water’, according to the cab drivers, is in most cases cheap spirits that the girls sip to ward off the cold.

Says Job: "These girls stay in the cold half naked and, like Russians, they take vodka to beat the cold."

The cheap liquor is sold alongside cigarettes, newspapers and mineral water in corridors along the street.

The basement trade thrives mostly on weekdays, when there are few people on the streets. The girls are very ingenious and at all times carry small change, which they use to bribe the city council askaris who hunt them down all night.