Sex workers within Nakuru’s Central Business District (CBD) have decried insecurity saying that it was having an unimaginable indirect impact on their business.
A majority of prostitutes at major brothels and dark spots within the town noted that October has been a very tough month after media reports earlier in the months indicated that there was a gang targeting them.
“Some of us are mothers; we are breadwinners in our families just like anybody else. This insecurity issue is making our lives intolerable,” lamented Judy Mueni who plies her trade near the main Mombasa stage.
She says that her son has been sent from school because of lack of school fees and contemplates changing towns because she cannot afford to have the son be with her in the house.
“The problem is, him being in the house also affects my daytime business as a customer cannot come while he is around and most night customers who are afraid because of the security situation like visiting during the day,” she added.
For Eunice Wairimu who waits for her customers at the Gituamba bar and restaurant within town, insecurity is a real threat having lost two of her friends to unknown people in a span of four months.
“Why should we be subjected to such torture while we are in the streets because of different circumstances life has led us to?" she wondered.
Adding that, “People are dying like nobody’s business, as I mourn my friends who were more like sisters, the questions is; why are we being targeted?”
Betty Atieno, who stands at the Glory guest house shows me a scar not yet fully recovered on the head as we begin the interview, which she says was inflected to her a month a go by two men who posed to be customers.
“I was lucky that a motorcycle came from the opposite direction and the lights made my attackers run away, leaving me profusely bleeding,” she offered.
What perplexes her to date is the fact that the attackers took nothing from her rather did they show any intention of raping her.
“From personal experience, I think the perpetrators are members of a cult looking for human body parts because they are after nothing else than your life,” Atieno noted.
They called for increased night patrols on the outskirts of town and backstreet corridors where they say the attackers carry out the killings.
Last week, they took to the streets to demonstrate on the state of security demanding for an explanation from police on why nothing had been done even after several cases had been reported.