Showing posts with label Beyond Malindi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beyond Malindi. Show all posts

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Beyond Malindi beauty façade lies ugly poverty and minors in prostitution

With their parents’ tacit approval, young Kenyans are routinely exploited sexually in Malindi by older foreigners. When the foreigners depart, they leave many broken hearts and lost innocence

“For many girls in Malindi, as soon as they have breasts, they find European boyfriends. It’s now a cultural more than a moral issue,”
Malindi is a charming town dotted with palm trees that whisper a song in the wind. The townspeople speak many languages: Kiswahili, English and Italian.
“It’s the language of trade here”, says Vincent Onyango, a former beach boy who has been fishing along the shores for the last 20 years, says of Italian. “Young girls use it for sex trade; to bargain better prices and lure their clients. Furthermore, to work in the lucrative resorts and hotels, fluency in Italian comes in handy.”