Informal settlements, Covid-19 and sex workers in Kenya

Abstract

This paper highlights the challenges faced by female sex workers living and working in the urban informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya, during the Covid-19 outbreak and the aftermath of the pandemic. Using data collected through phone interviews during the immediate crisis, we document the experiences of urban poor sex workers, illustrating the acute problems they faced, including precarious housing with the reality of eviction and demolition. The paper highlights the ramifications of the Covid-19 crisis for the sex industry and predominantly women working within this informal, illegal economy. Through our empirical data we illustrate how the nature of selling sex has changed for sex workers in this context, increasing risks of violence including police abuses. We argue that examining the Covid-19 crisis through the lens of one the most marginalised populations graphically highlights how the pandemic has and will continue to deepen pre-existing structural urban inequalities and worsen public health outcomes among the urban poor. Sex worker communities are often located at the intersections of structural inequalities of gender, class, race and nation and the socio-spatial fragmentations of how they live make them some of the most vulnerable in society. We close with comments in relation to sexual citizenship, exclusionary state practices and the feminisation of urban poverty.

Influence of COVID-19 on female sex workers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: A mixed-methods analysis

“…Our results are consistent with findings from studies in rural and urban Kenya which demonstrated sharp decreases in transactional sex activity, income, and numbers of clients in the early phases of the pandemic [24,25]. Other research conducted in India, Ukraine, Kenya, and Zimbabwe also found that many FSW struggled to meet basic needs such as pay rent and experienced increased food insecurity during this period [3,26].…”

Urban public health emergencies and the COVID-19 pandemic. Part 1: Social and spatial inequalities in the COVID-city

“…In general terms, this suggests creative workers had the means and choice to work at home, while frontline workers could not because of fears of losing income. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in Hassan et al (2023) whose paper on sex workers in Nairobi, Kenya, shows that lack of financial security forced them to continue their ‘risky’ business, albeit that one of the main sources of risk was not COVID-19 per se but violence at the hands of the police as well as clients.…”

Struggling, Forgotten, and Under Pressure: A Scoping Review of Experiences of Sex Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Nearly all studies across the world reported on the reduction in work and income for individuals involved in sex work during the COVID-19 pandemic (Aantjes et al, 2023;Azam et al, 2021;Burgos & Del Pino, 2021;Cabras & Ingrasci, 2022;Callander et al, 2022;Chakrapani et al, 2022;Fedorkó et al, 2022;Gbagbo, 2020;Hassan et al, 2023;Judge & Jackson, 2023;Kahambing, 2021;Kavanagh et al, 2021;Laikram & Pathak, 2021;Leyva-Moral et al, 2023;Lamontagne et al, 2022;Machingura et al, 2021;Magnani et al, 2022;Mantell et al, 2021;Matambanadzo et al, 2021;Mlambo & Masuku, 2022;Moura et al, 2022;Museva et al, 2021;Nyabeze et al, 2022;Pearson et al, 2022;Pereira, 2021;Pollard et al, 2021;Richterman et al, 2022;Santos et al, 2022;Shankar et al, 2022;Shekhar, 2023;Singer et al, 2020;Su & Valiquette, 2022;Tan et al, 2021aTan et al, , 2021bTran et al, 2022;Wang et al, 2022;Wirawan et al, 2022).…”

“…The reduction in work was attributed to the physical distancing measures in place (Cabras & Ingrasci, 2022); nighttime curfews forcing sex workers to work earlier in the day when there was reduced demand (Cabras & Ingrasci, 2022;Mlambo & Masuku, 2022;Nyabeze et al, 2022); the closure of sex work venues such as bars, restaurants, hostels, hotels, licenses brothels, truck stops and entertainment venues (Callander et al, 2022;Hassan et al, 2023;Leyva-Moral et al, 2023;Machingura et al, 2021;Matambanadzo et al, 2021;Moura et al, 2022;Nyabeze et al, 2022;Shankar et al, 2022;Tan et al, 2021aTan et al, , 2021bTran et al, 2022); restrictions on mobility (Hassan et al, 2023;Machingura et al, 2021;Matambanadzo et al, 2021;Museva et al, 2021;Tan et al, 2021a;Tran et al, 2022); the need to hide from law enforcement who were looking for people breaking lockdown rules (Aantjes et al, 2023); fears of catching COVID-19 if they continued working (Matambanadzo et al, 2021;Pollard et al, 2021); and dwindling demand for sex workers (Aantjes et al, 2023;Callander et al, 2022;Pollard et al, 2021) perhaps due to clients' fear of catching COVID-19 (Hassan et al, 2023;Machingura et al, 2021;Mlambo & Masuku, 2022) or clients' own loss of income (Hassan et al, 2023;Tran et al, 2022). One study from the Netherlands and Belgium examining trends in sex workers' activity (Aza...…”