Outrage over child sexual abuse expose in Maai Mahiu

The two suspected women believed to be behind the trade and who police state they have since gone under. [BBC,X]

Pressure is mounting on the Kenya Police to bring to book two women allegedly involved in child-sexual abuse in Maai Mahiu in Rift Valley region, following an expose by the BBC dubbed "Madams' on Sunday.

In the expose, through undercover reporters, the BBC exposed two women allegedly exploiting children for sex, one claiming to have a girl as young as 13 years old.

The underage girls are exploited sexually by mostly truck drivers in the transit town of Maai Mahiu as they drive through to Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to the 27-minute investigative piece that took months to film, one woman identified only as Nyambura, confesses to being in the trade by stating: "They're still children, so it's easy to manipulate them by just handing them sweets."

"Prostitution is a cash crop in Maai Mahiu; the truckers fuel it. And that's how we benefit. It's been normalised in Maai Mahiu," she explained, adding that she had one girl as young as 13, who had already been "working" for six months.

Some of the girls who have been exploited also revealed their ordeals. They described being repeatedly abused for sex daily.

"Sometimes you have sex with multiple people. The clients force you to do unimaginable things," said one of the girls.

"The British broadcaster also stated that it gave all its evidence to the Kenyan police in March 2025, and to date, there have been no arrests.

The film also follows the work of a woman known as 'Baby Girl', who is on a mission to rescue, protect, and empower girls escaping exploitation.

Baby Girl, who is also a former sex worker of 40 years, now supports her community in HIV prevention, assisted by the US aid agency USAID.

But as this funding comes to an end in Kenya, the future and security of those she helps protect remain uncertain.