THIS IS WHY WE WILL ALWAYS HAVE COMMERCIAL SEX WORKERS

By Jaymo Wa Thika

Yesterday, I bumped into a hot, interesting but rather controversial conversation that I really need to share with you. It was about the street commercial sex workers (CSWs).

In the conversation, I gathered two very key messages:

1. The CSWs are there because there is a very ready market and

2. They offer a very “essential service” to men in need of a solution to a very pertinent problem….. Sounds crazy you think….. I thought so too.

The conversation was about the partial lockdown in the 5 “Gatubia” counties where among other things, the government closed all bars, entertainment joints and eateries were left to serve “take aways” only. The argument was that the government’s move had confined men back into their “home cells” that they had briefly ran away from when the president previously opened up the economy before the second and third waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The debaters argued that those places offered men’s only known refuge from the wrath of their first ladies. They argued that the reason why men flocked and literally lived in bars and entertainment joints was in search for peace and happiness… something lacking at home.

And being African men, they suffered in silence since no one would listen to any man who claimed to be “sat on” by his wife. He would be dismissed as being a weakling and useless man.

So, the only place such men will find peace and at least exercise their laughing prowess, was in those joints where their money buys the peace, the happiness and acceptance (though mechanical). Those are the only places they be men and be recognised as men.

That is why you will find men sing praise and worship songs in bars with so much happiness and nostalgia. In fact, you can only find the best praise and worship choirs in bars, not in churches….. That one I can assure you.

They will stick inside the club until they are “swept out” by the attendants after the time is up to close the bar. Here, it will take the man a whole hour to cover a 200-metre distance from the bar to his home…… risking being a guest of the police or being a client of the other “manyang’aus out to collect whatever has been left by the barman.. He feels rather safer in their hands than with the bosslady.

That is why there is a lot of noise among men about curfew hours. They cannot imagine being at home at 8 to withstand the “torture” for the next 8 hours before the chaps are let out again for some “fresh air” the following morning. Yes….. 8 very long hours that seem endless.

Some even spend those cold hours in their car after being locked out of the house by the bosslady.

Apart from the nagging (and sometimes battering), the man is completely denied “pale pale” and lives like a bachelor… Yes, they are the married bachelors who sleep in either different beds or rooms with the bosslady.

Being human, you expect such a man to sneak out now and then for these “essential services”. This is where his money and status comes in handy when it comes to the choice of the “service providers”. Those with financial capabilities will “sponsor” someone to take over those duties or hire high-end clandes to offer the relief they are craving for.

For the “walala hois”, the street CSWs come in handy. That is where their ka100 will offer a “quickie” to offload their problems.

Yes, now you know why, no matter how much we try to chase these CSWs off the streets, they will never go away. There is a very big market for their products and services….. but THE BIG Q is…Who is to blame?