There might be three or four sitting at a table, all fawning over the same guilty-looking guy. That guy might walk out with a woman on each arm.
One out of three of those women are HIV-positive. No one wants to talk about it, but everyone knows about it. This came weeks after a new push from Nairobi City Council to legalize prostitution.
A public protest followed the pro-legalization announcement, wherein masked sex workers took to the streets and demanded an end to sexual violence and police harassmentβa bold move considering the abject terror most feel about revealing their identities or messing with the authorities.
In a city with 7, sex workers serving three or four clients each night, the ensuing political debate has been intense. When I arrived, jaded-looking women in various degrees of intoxication lined the walls on the stairs up to the bar. Some were just lying on the ground, flophouse style.
It was a pretty grim scene. Understandably, none of the women allowed me to take their pictures. If there are kids Mary wants two, eventually , they get fed in the morning.
