‘I Was Offering $e.x For Money While Heavily Pregnant And My Useless Husband Was Okay With It’ – Former Pr0st!tute Reveals

 

Twenty-five-year-old Purity Wanjiru, a reformed commercial sex worker in Nairobi, recounts her time in the streets.

She says at one time, she was married and her then-husband, whom she describes as “irresponsible and uncaring” knew about her prostitution but did not discourage her from engaging in the frowned-upon activity.

Shockingly, she was – at the time – pregnant and still selling her body in the streets. Her husband was okay with it, she says.

Wanjiru, who was born and raised in Uthiru, Kiambu County, recounts plunging to the streets after she ran away from home due to her differences with her parents and elder siblings.

She describes her childhood as one filled with rebellion from her end, which made interaction with her parents and elder siblings difficult, and, at the same time, her education trouble-ridden.

She recounts being unable to stay in school for a whole day, saying she just felt a strong urge to go wander on the streets. While in primary school, she would leave lessons mid-way to go perambulate in the neighbourhood.

While in Class Five, her teachers suspended her from school, with clear instructions to her parents that Wanjiru would only be readmitted if she changed her carefree attitude for goo

“I come from a family of 12 siblings; I am the lastborn. I remember there was a day my elder siblings and mother ganged up to teach me a lesson. They beat me up thoroughly because I had shown disinterest in education,” Wanjiru told BBC Swahili on Wednesday, July 8, 2020.

“That beating made me bottle up a lot of anger against my siblings and mother. I was 13 years old at the time. Being a rebellious person, I decided to run away from home,” she told BBC Swahili TV host Anne Ngugi.

That move marked the beginning of her life in the streets. She recounts being arrested for wandering aimlessly and allegedly engaging in prostitution. Wanjiru was, consequently, locked up in a juvenile cell for two months, she said.