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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 NAIROBI 004070 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG ASEC ELAB PREL KE
SUBJECT: KENYA BETTER FOCUSED ON TIP BUT MORE COORDINATION 
NEEDED 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  G/TIP Yousey's August visit to Kenya 
highlighted the challenges facing government efforts to 
combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP).  While Kenya's ranking 
among Tier Two Watchlist countries has increased the 
attention of the GOK and Kenyan civil society to the problem 
of human trafficking, inadequate resources and poor 
communication and coordination continue to hamper efforts to 
combat the problem. End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Rachel Yousey, Program Analyst in the Office to 
Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, visited Kenya July 
31 - August 7, 2006 to gain a better understanding of TIP 
issues affecting Kenya and to raise awareness of TIP among 
Kenyan officials.  Pol FSN and Econoff accompanied Yousey to 
meetings with civil society and Kenyan government agencies 
with anti-TIP responsibilities.  In addition to meeting with 
GOK offices headquartered in Nairobi, Yousey also traveled to 
Kenya's coast, where human trafficking is a growing problem, 
to discuss trends and anti-TIP efforts with relevant 
government agencies and civil society organizations. 
 
Civil Society Committed to Greater Coordination 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶3. (SBU) Yousey began the visit with a roundtable on August 
1, comprised of numerous civil society organizations involved 
in activities to combat trafficking in persons.  The issues 
the NGOs are confronting include commercial sexual 
exploitation, sex tourism, child abuse, and forced labor. 
Their programs to confront these issues aim at rehabilitation 
of street children, legal aid, and women and child rights 
advocacy.  There was general consensus on the need to 
strengthen the network of civil society organizations working 
on these issues.  They called for resources to open shelters 
for rescued women and children, and to investigate corrupt 
police and officials who protect traffickers.  Participants 
agreed that better coordination would enhance anti-TIP 
efforts, and that to more effectively address TIP-related 
issues, the network needs to include relevant GOK agencies. 
Pol FSN's proposal to develop a GOK line ministry network to 
assist in coordination of GOK efforts was enthusiastically 
received. 
 
¶4. (SBU)   These sentiments echo similar comments made at a 
May 2005 Embassy-sponsored TIP conference, and an 
International Organization for Migration (IOM)-sponsored 
conference in November 2005.  That these issues remain 
unresolved and of primary concern for these organizations 
says a great deal about the state of anti-TIP efforts and the 
ability (or willingness) of the various organizations to take 
the initiative and develop the necessary networks to be more 
effective.  Several NGO representatives have separately 
lamented to Poloff the inability of civil society, let alone 
the GOK, to coordinate activities.  NGO's have historically 
relied on outside initiatives (from the USG or International 
Organizations) to assist in bringing everyone together. On a 
more promising note, the NGO TIP network invited Econoff to 
its August meeting, where they tried to finalize the text of 
an MOU to formalize the network and improve coordination. 
 
 
GOK All Ears, But Slow to Act 
----------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Yousey next paid a call on Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs officials, including recently appointed Kenyan 
ambassadors assigned to Middle Eastern countries.  Recent 
media reports have highlighted the plight of Kenyan 
trafficking victims in several Middle East countries.  Yousey 
raised awareness of these issues among the outgoing 
ambassadors.  The officials were grateful for our bringing 
the issues to their attention and expressed their support for 
the proposed GOK line ministry network to better share 
information and coordinate efforts on TIP. 
 
¶6. (SBU) During a meeting with Gideon Kimilu, Criminal 
Investigations Division Staff Operations Officer, Kenyan 
Police Service, he acknowledged that some KPS officers have 
benefited from TIP awareness training, provided by IOM and 
the American Bar Association (ABA), but said too few have 
been trained and those that have are not deployed 
consistently where they can transfer the acquired knowledge 
to colleagues.  Kimilu identified the need to incorporate 
into such awareness training a "train the trainer" (TOT) 
component at provincial and district levels.  (Note:  The 
Embassy recently completed a grant agreement with the ABA to 
provide TOT TIP awareness training to law enforcement and 
 
NAIROBI 00004070  002 OF 003 
 
 
immigration officers. The ABA developed the curriculum in 
active consultation with the Kenya Police Service and 
Ministry for Immigration. End Note.)  The Deputy Secretary in 
the Office of the President, Mr. Maina, acknowledged the 
Human Trafficking Unit (HTU) has been inactive and said that 
he would try to invigorate it. 
 
¶7. (SBU) The Permanent Secretary for Immigration, Emmanuel 
Kisombe, welcomed Yousey's visit and expressed concern over 
the lack of coordination between GOK agencies and with civil 
society.  He also lamented that his Ministry was never 
consulted regarding its efforts for inclusion in the State 
Department's Annual TIP Report. (Note: The need for greater 
coordination and communication is clearly a lesson to be 
drawn from his own Ministry, where Poloff met with several 
immigration officials to discuss their efforts to combat 
trafficking, including the Assistant Principle Immigration 
Officer.  The Permanent Secretary was either unaware of these 
meetings or was being disingenuous.  End Note.) 
 
¶8. (SBU) The Children's Department of the Ministry of Home 
Affairs recently designated an officer to cover all 
TIP-related issues.  Human trafficking is now included in the 
Department's work plan.  Also, the Department's officials 
explained that there is a National Steering Committee 
responsible for children's matters and that there is a TIP 
sub-portfolio under the committee.  Officials expressed 
concern over the growing reports of boys aged 15-18 being 
trafficked to the Middle East.  Officials from the Children's 
Department expressed strong support for improved networking 
between the GOK, civil society, and faith-based 
organizations. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Minister of Culture and Wildlife Morris Dzoro and 
Tourism Director Wanjiru Makanga Munene said they were forced 
to carry out a raid on a hotel on the Coast because the local 
police were compromised and refused to respond to reports of 
a woman selling her teen-age daughters to tourists.  Dzoro 
assured Yousey and Emboffs that the hotels and other 
hospitality sector firms that had not yet signed the ECPAT 
Code of Conduct to fight child sex tourism would sign up.  He 
said he would use the recently revived Hotel and Restaurant 
Authority, which inspects and licenses all hotels, lodges, 
and guest houses, to enforce the Code. 
 
¶10. (SBU) However, Officials from the Ministry of Labor 
complained that while they are involved in vetting and 
counseling Kenyan workers going abroad, they have very little 
idea of what are the conditions for these workers in foreign 
countries, a situation which is aggravated by the fact that 
there are no foreign labor attaches in Kenyan missions 
abroad.  They also complained that the civil society-drafted 
anti-TIP legislation was not developed in sufficient 
consultation with the Ministry. 
 
 
Challenged on the Coast 
----------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) On August 3, Yousey, Pol FSN, and Econoff traveled 
to the Coast, which has been described as the epicenter of 
human trafficking in Kenya, particularly child sex tourism. 
A team of Coastal administrators, including the Provincial 
Commissioner, Provincial Immigration Officer, Provincial 
Tourism Officer, and Assistant Commissioner of Police, 
readily admitted to Yousey that child prostitution is rampant 
and that the government's ability to combat the vice is 
limited.  Despite posting legal notices prohibiting underage 
children from admission to bars and other establishments, 
rarely is anyone ever held to account. Legal loopholes, they 
explained, are too great to achieve many successful 
prosecutions.  The Provincial Commissioner suggested that the 
judiciary should be sensitized on child trafficking and 
sexual exploitation cases.  The Immigration Officer opined 
that the difficulties are due to Kenya's porous borders, 
which are exploited by traffickers.  The Assistant 
Commissioner of Police explained that his officers worked in 
close cooperation with their Tanzanian counterparts and by 
using road blocks have identified illegal aliens and 
smuggling routes.  However, he complained that the court 
system has consistently failed to successfully prosecute 
those arrested.  It was apparent from the meeting that the 
Human Trafficking Unit of the Kenya Police Service has yet to 
become active on the Coast. 
 
¶12. (SBU) During a meeting with the Malindi District 
Commissioner (DC), the team learned that the area was 
 
NAIROBI 00004070  003 OF 003 
 
 
notorious for marriages between young Kenyan men and women 
and older Europeans. The DC described incidents, without 
making clear whether any force was involved in the initial 
marriage contract, where young Kenyan brides returned to 
Kenya with horror stories of abuse at the hands of their 
foreign spouses. 
 
¶13. (SBU) A local reporter who has closely followed TIP and 
the growth of sex tourism in Malindi, said that over the last 
10 years, a powerful social trend had developed in which 
local women, even educated professionals, seek to marry 
foreigners who provide houses, cars, and income.  He claimed 
that many of the businesses in Malindi, both large and small, 
are owned by Europeans through their Kenyan wives or 
girlfriends.  He believed child prostitution and sex tourism 
had exploded in the last year, with girls younger then 15 
seeking out European tourists and going to their walled-off 
villas, where some are abused and used to make pornographic 
videos.  He worried that European residents and visitors to 
Malindi have developed a sense of impunity because local 
officials prevent police from "harassing" them to keep the 
tourism industry growing. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶14. (SBU) The release of the Annual TIP Report and Kenya's 
downgrading to Tier Two Watchlist have helped focus attention 
on human trafficking.  However, both civil society and 
government officials decry the lack of better coordination on 
TIP issues indicating there is serious room for improvement 
and underscoring the difficulties in harnessing the good will 
to combat TIP for effective action.  Thus, while great 
strides have been made in raising awareness, closer 
cooperation is sorely needed given the complexity of TIP 
issues and the necessary involvement of numerous government 
agencies.  We will strive to capitalize on this new attention 
and push all parties for improved communication and the 
development of a GOK line ministry network.  As demonstrated 
in Yousey's various meetings, the Embassy should be able to 
find numerous willing allies. 
 
¶15.  (U)  This cable was cleared by G/TIP's Rachel Yousey. 
RANNEBERGER