**3. Global overview of child sex trafficking**

Child trafficking is an offense to human dignity, and typically involves violations of several fundamental child rights. The 2020 UNODC report on trafficking in human beings shows that globally one in every three victims detected is a child [7]. It also finds that there are more child victims detected in low-income countries than in income countries, and children are mostly trafficked for sexual exploitation.3 Child trafficking or the sale of children involves the "recruitment, supply, transfer, harbouring, illegal adoption, and receipt" of a child for commercial sexual exploitation or forced labour exploitation within or across borders of countries.4 Child trafficking is a demand-driven crime for cheap labour during periods of economic growth or decline [11]. Children who are trafficked for labour exploitation may subsequently end up in the commercial sex trade and vice versa [12]. Commercial sexual exploitation of children consists of criminal practices that humiliate and threaten the physical and psychosocial integrity of a child. These children are in modern slavery, suffer all types of abuse, are treated as sexual objects, and are deeply rooted in their innocence but lack protection. Nonetheless, it is not seen as a social problem because it only affects a cluster of several voiceless individuals who are children. The social status of children attribute to child victims explains why this crime is not recognized as a problem that needs attention.

In the last decade, there has been tremendous recognition of the growing global phenomenon of the sex trade; especially those related to children trafficked into the sex industry. The adoption of the UN Convention on the rights of the child in 1989 was

<sup>4</sup> Ibid.

<sup>2</sup> Ibid.

<sup>3</sup> Ibid.

also heralded as a remarkable achievement in child rights advocacy and protection. Many countries in Africa have put in place measures to ensure that children are protected from sexual exploitation. However, over the past decade, evidence has emerged that child sexual exploitation is becoming more pervasive and increasingly due to poverty, rural migration, destruction of social norms and morals, and growth in travel and tourism among other factors. Africa has a share of the child trafficking problem that exists in different types namely; trafficking children primarily for domestic labour, as child solder, for begging, or organ harvesting within and across countries and from outside the region for the sex industry and sexual exploitation [13].

### **3.1 Regional perspective on child sex trafficking in Africa**

The situation of child trafficking in the African context is nothing new every day; children are being bought, sold, and transported. These movements take place in the child's community, at transit points, and at final destinations. Child trafficking is a social contemporary challenge with many supply factors among them the scarcity and poverty mentality of families and society. The patterns of extreme poverty, social norms, and familial backgrounds play a role in child sex trafficking.

Paradoxically, the imperfect in the African cultural perception of the demand for underage sex and particularly among the African myth that sex with a virgin is a cure for HIV/AIDS and related orphans, and the weakness or lack of laws and policies addressing the protection and prevention of child sex trafficking. Hence, in the African context, children are seen as a blessing, thus most people aspire to have at least four or more children in their lifetime. A famous African proverb states that "it takes a village to raise a child" it takes a world to eradicate slavery" slavery is around today and it has been around for centuries. This message is as profound as safeguarding and protecting children is everyone's responsibility.

The extended family network is very valued in the African culture, making it easy for affluent family members, friends, relatives, and the community to offer to assist the poor families in their midst. A big number of children often burdens families in rural areas and informal settlements and some parents might have succumbed to HIV/ AIDS. They, therefore, tend to easily trust anybody, friends, relatives, and the community who is willing to help. Because of this network of trust, poor families will tend to give out their children for domestic work with ease hoping also that the child will be assisted to get good education outside the village setup. This being away may lead to the situation of child trafficking for sexual exploitation.

In some cases, not poverty really leads to child sex trafficking in Kenya, but also children from a background of sexually abused environmental settings. For instance, these hostile communities are characterized by a high risk of sexual and gender-based violence, high levels of substance abuse, and a lack of opportunities for education. Indeed, exposes children to endure a life of physical, sexual, or psychological abuse from families or any other adults and are forced to seek escape by running away from home. Culture has been a major factor in sex child trafficking, which does not a factor due to poverty. Mainly the coastline of Kenya practices child marriage where girls are married off when they are babies and are divorced when they are still babies and end up on the streets and prey to traffickers for sexual exploitation.

Some African countries have created a culture that perceives children as commodities that can be bought and sold with little regard for their wellbeing. In Ghana, the problem of child trafficking "child slavery" for different reasons brings back memories of slavery. A BBC documentary on this issue in February 2017 [14] suggested that

### *Child Sex Trafficking Pandemic of the 21st Century in Kenya DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110316*

children are simply given to traffickers or 'slave masters' by parents who are unable to cater for them or sold according to Left [15]. In African culture, the practice of fostering or child placement is the root of modern child trafficking. Out of poverty, parents become comfortable with sending their children into bonded labour as the shortest means of solving their own economic and social hardship. The traffickers are able to fulfill their needs but the life of the child who is a victim of sex trafficking life may not be the same. Ghana's Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act 694),5 addresses human trafficking activity within, to, from, and through Ghana which is mainly guided by the United Nations Palermo Protocol to Prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking in person, which is the international legal framework to combat trafficking. However, the paradigm of child sex trafficking gradually shifts toward a greater need to serve the supply and demand industry of child sex trafficking.

Many traffickers are well known to the victims because are either they are family members, relatives, neighbors, or friends. Family members entrusted with caring for the children are often the ones grooming, manipulating, abusing, and exploiting them in domestic servitude or sex trafficking. The family unit is a key path to the cohesiveness of society in addressing child trafficking issues, underlying social structural factors are on the family level. However, having a family member as the main perpetrator and trafficker may also result in many victims feeling unable to speak about the experiences, they endured due to the shame it may bring upon their families, communities, and themselves. In many of these cases, children may simply have no other trusted adults actively engaged in their lives.

### **3.2 Overview of child trafficking in Kenya**

Child trafficking accounts for the majority 55% and 72% of sexual exploitation [16]. Some child sexual exploitation includes child prostitution, pornography, trafficking of children for sexual purposes, and child marriage. It is estimated that 1.8 million children are exploited in prostitution and pornography worldwide [17]. Kenya is an origin country for children trafficked to; Chad, France, Spain, Rwanda, Germany, Netherlands, Uganda, Italy, and Tanzania. As an end country, Kenya harbors children trafficked from; the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Uganda, Uganda, South Sudan Ethiopia, and Tanzania. In addition, Kenya is a transit point for children being trafficked from; the Democratic Republic of Congo to Ethiopia, Uganda to Somalia, and Tanzania to Burundi.6 The most heinous of the various forms of child trafficking is sexual exploitation where the victims are forced, coerced, or deceived into the trafficking networks.

Over the past decade, evidence has emerged that child sexual exploitation is becoming more pervasive and increasingly due to rural migration, erosion of social norms and morals, high poverty levels, and growth in travel and tourism among other factors. Therefore, there is relatively low engagement by the community and the tourism industry to prevent the sexual exploitation of children. In the last decade, there has been tremendous recognition of the growing phenomenon of the sex trade as a severe crime worldwide; especially those related to children trafficked into the sex industry. Kenya is a major regional hub for child trafficking, victims, including children who are sold into sex tourism in Mombasa.

<sup>5</sup> Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act 694) (Ghana).

<sup>6</sup> Ibid.

### **3.3 Child sex trafficking in Kenya in Mombasa**

Mombasa is one of the Kenyan coast towns, which is known as the main tourist destination with exotic beaches that attracts people for holiday. The city is strategically placed as it serves as the main tourist pivot for the coastal region. Mombasa town remained the centre of Arab slaves from the 8th to the 16th century and it has continued to be the port of eastern and central African countries. The slave trade ended but its ugly scar is engraved in part of Mombasa and other coastal towns. Modern slavery in the sex tourism industry fuels child sex exploitation in Kenya and is most prevalent in the coastal region. Kenya has a share of the child trafficking problem that exists in different types namely; trafficking children primarily for domestic labour within and across countries and from outside the region for the sex industry and sexual exploitation [18].

Parents from low income are approached directly in the community or via social media with offers of work in exchange for payment of education. Child prostitution is slowly becoming acceptable in the Mombasa region of Kenya. One of the media reported that there could be as many as 100,000 child sex workers a distributing figure that has turned the coastal region into the world's hub for child sex tourism in Kenya [19]. It is also estimated that more than 20,000 children are trafficked annually for rampant prostitution, especially on the coast, which is a "hot" sex tourism destination with private villas and guest houses dotted along the Coast [20].

The 2010 Constitution of Kenya (Article 53) recognizes the need for all children to be protected from abuse, neglect, harmful cultural practices, all forms of violence, inhumane treatment and punishment, and hazardous cultural labour. In the year 2009, the US Department of State reported that Kenyan children were trafficked for various domestic and agricultural activities including herding cattle, street begging, working in recreational establishments, and prostitution, as well as involvement in the sex tourist sector in the coastal region. Further, trafficking for sexual purposes often involves the migration of children from the upcountry region to the coastal region [21] for both the supply and demand required to grow the child trafficking industry. Mombasa sex tourism is timely between July to December, which is the highest pick season for tourists in Kenya. Children are groomed and targeted online for sex and forced to work in sex parlors. Other are given to adults both local and foreigners who are seeking to rekindle their sexual lives by having sex with children, who are perceived to be free from HIV and other diseases. The price for young girls between 10 and 15 years, who are sold for sex with a tourist in Mombasa, is \$600 (54, 000), but boys are trafficked into sex tourism as well, whereas others engage in sex tourism as a means to an end" [22].

It is worth noting that many child sex workers have moved to the coast from other parts of the country and have often been forced into sex work even before they arrive.

*Faith was nine years not her real name when she was trafficked from the northern part of Kenya to Mombasa for domestic work by a friend of her mother. Their journey took one week, and each day she was being sexually abused by a different man. Her mother's friend told her that she was preparing her for a relationship with a white man. When she arrived in Mombasa, she was forced to start sex work. She was later rescued by a good Samaritan on the beach while she was on the run and taken to a rescue shelter.*

Trafficked children are sexually exploited by people working in Khat (mild narcotic) cultivation areas [23]. Children are trafficked in the sex industry, and the production of child pornography, adoptions, or organs, has international dimensions [24]. Another well-known form of Online Child Sex Exploitation (OCSE) includes

#### *Child Sex Trafficking Pandemic of the 21st Century in Kenya DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110316*

online grooming, live streaming of child sexual abuse, and the production and distribution of child sexual abuse materials for offenders overseas [25]. Despite the Kenya law that inhibits child trafficking, another distributing portion of trafficked children are newborn babies whose cases go unaddressed and unsolved by Kenyan authorities [26]. Babies are trafficked through connections between Kenyan and foreign, where the police do not take seriously this crime [27]. The level and acceptance of sexual exploitation of children in the coastal areas put all children in Kenya at risk. It reflects a fundamental breakdown of families and communities, and a failure of the authority to provide protection to children and to prosecute those responsible for promoting and profiting from child sex work. Though coastal communities are among the poorest segment group in Kenya, the lucrative tourism industry has failed to deliver economic benefits and employment for the host communities and this has exacerbated and increased the vulnerability of children to sexual exploitation.

Child sex tourism and commercial sexual exploitation of children consist of criminal practices that demean and threaten the physical and psychological integrity of children. Child sex trafficking can have a devastating impact on children including long-lasting trauma, sexually transmitted infections, unplanned pregnancies and abortions, and mental health problems, such as depression and suicidal ideation. The declaration and Agendas for Action Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children is a groundbreaking instrument that defines the commercial sexual exploitation of children as" a fundamental violation of children's rights. …the child is treated as a sexual object and as a commercial object [28].
