In the WW1 years, Nairobi was used as a major logistical hub particularly against the German front in Tanganyika.
The war saw an influx into Nairobi of troops from among settlers, Indian sub-continent and South Africa.
The war saw an influx into Nairobi of troops from among settlers, Indian sub-continent and South Africa.
During and following the war, prostitution thrived in Nairobi.
Women would tend to farms around the nascent city by day, and engage in prostitution by night.
Women would tend to farms around the nascent city by day, and engage in prostitution by night.
The area around Pumwani, which was in close proximity with the military Carrier Corps camp (Kariokor today), was particularly popular with the Afrikaner troops, whom prostitutes called Kibura, for “Boers”.
Women who engaged in prostitution carried gunny bags to work. The work was mostly menial by nature. So laundry work, selling grains, the like.
When she was done with the day job, she lurked at a suitable spot and, lying on her gunny bag (aka gunia), motioned a man to lie down with her for one rupee, sometimes one and a half (many casual workers earned 5 rupees per month around 1918).
It is said the women made so much money that proceeds from their twilight occupation were used to put up some some of the old houses we see today in Nairobi’s Pumwani/Majengo area.
Prof. Luise White of the University of Florida is a social studies researcher and chronicler of early Nairobi.
She notes the following in her book, The Comforts Of Home: Prostitution In Colonial Nairobi, which was published on 1990:
“almost all these prostitutes except the Maasai tended to become Muslim, but this was part of an overall tendency for Africans in early Nairobi to convert to Islam and had little to do with prostitution in and of itself....”
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