Woman,56, joins sex tourists

2007-11-28 14:51

Mombasa - Bethan, 56, lives in southern England on the same street as best friend Allie, 64.

They were on their first holiday to Kenya, a country they said was "just full of big young boys who like us older girls".

Hard figures were difficult to come by, but local people on the coast estimated that as many as one in five single women visiting from rich countries were in search of sex.

Allie and Bethan - who both declined to give their full names - said they planned to spend a whole month touring Kenya's palm-fringed beaches. They would do well to avoid the country's tourism officials.

"It's not evil," said Jake Grieves-Cook, chairperson of the Kenya Tourist Board, when asked about the practise of older rich women travelling for sex with young Kenyan men.

"But it's certainly something we frown upon."

'We both get something we want'

Also, the health risks were stark in a country with an Aids prevalence of 6.9%. Although condom use could only be guessed at, Julia Davidson, an academic at Nottingham University who wrote on sex tourism, said that in the course of her research that she had met women who shunned condoms - finding them too "businesslike" for their exotic fantasies.

The white beaches of the Indian Ocean coast stretched before the friends as they both walked arm-in-arm with young African men, Allie resting her white haired-head on the shoulder of her companion, a six-foot-four 23-year-old from the Maasai tribe.

He wore new sunglasses he said were a gift from her. "We both get something we want - where's the negative?" Allie asked in a bar later, nursing a strong, golden cocktail.

She was still wearing her bikini top, having just pulled on a pair of jeans and a necklace of traditional African beads.

Bethan sipped the same local drink: a powerful mix of honey, fresh limes and vodka known locally as "Dawa", or "medicine".

'We want guest to feel comfortable'

She kept one eye on her date - a 20-year-old playing pool, a red bandana tying back dreadlocks and new-looking sports shoes on his feet.

He looked up and came to join her at the table, kissing her, then collecting more coins for the pool game.

Grieves-Cook and many hotel managers said they were doing all they could to discourage the practice of older women picking up local boys, arguing it was far from the type of tourism they wanted to encourage in the east African nation.

"The head of a local hoteliers' association told me they have begun taking measures - like refusing guests who want to change from a single to a double room," said Grieves-Cook.

"It's about trying to make those guests feel as uncomfortable as possible ... But it's a fine line. We are 100% against anything illegal, such as prostitution. But it's different with something like this - it's just unwholesome."

These same beaches had long been notorious for attracting another type of sex tourists - those who abused children.

As many as 15 000 girls in four coastal districts - about a third of all 12-18 year-olds girls there - were involved in casual sex for cash, a joint study by Kenya's government and United Nations children's charity, Unicef, reported late last year.

Up to 3 000 more girls and boys were in full-time sex work, it said, some paid for the "most horrific and abnormal acts".

- Reuters