SEX & LIFESTYLE
With just six days into 'Njaanuary', 2020, there is no doubt that things are not very rosy financially for many average Kenyans if among others, street talks and social media chitchats that you may also have encountered with or may be part of, is anything to go by.
By 254 NewsDay Lifestyle Reporter.
Compounded by the prevailing economic downturn that spilled over from 2019, this year's 'Njaanuary' might prove to be the toughest and 'longest' in many years.
Everywhere you go and whomever you meet with is just crying pennilessness, rising cost of living just to mention but a few.
In Thika Town, things are no different with the town's commercial sex 'trade' seemingly being the worst hit, if what a number of sex workers that this writer has spoken to say, is anything to go by.
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The sex workers who do their trade at different Thika estates and who asked for anonymity, all seem to agree that although January has never been a good month for them, 'Njaanuary' 2020 may prove to be a nasty nightmare.
"I have a feeling that this January won't be a walk in the park for many if not all of us in this town. Clients are not showing up including the regular ones. Since the New Year's Day, I have had only five clients, two of whom I had to call being my regular ones, and they only agreed to come by after we renegotiated our usual terms of engagement," one sex worker who operates in Makongeni said on Saturday, noting that she has never had to call a client before.
Another sex worker who operates at a flashy entertainment joint in the neighbouring Kisii Estate, voices similar sentiments saying that her main clients whom she nets from the joint have reduced drastically since the year began.
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"If the current status quo prevails for another week, we may have to look for other things to do because we have mouths to feed and bills to pay but the clients are not showing up. Those who frequent here and are known to me are drinking and living hurriedly claiming to have pressing issues awaiting them elsewhere. But I do not think that is the case," she said.
In Thika town centre, still yet another sex worker who 'sells' her wares at a notorious brothel near the main matatu stage, says that this 'Njaanuary' took a downward trajectory ahead of its time when Kiambu and Murang'a tea farmers who frequent the joint failed to show up well in October/November last year owing to poor bonus pay.
The tea bonus payment time is usually a 'super-harvest' time for many sex workers in Thika who apart from charging the 'loaded' and naïve farmers exorbitantly, sometimes rob them everything and leave them out hanging to dry.