PAGE TITLE African nation is a source, transit route, and destination for human trafficking victims. People from Uganda, Burundi, and Ethiopia are trafficked into Kenya for hard labor. Ethiopians are trafficked into South Africa for hard labor. The US Department of State 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report finds that the government of Kenya does not fully meet “the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so.” These efforts include the Counter-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2010, which criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking and prescribed penalties of 30 years to life imprisonment, a fine of not less than $274,980, or both. The government also allocated $183,320 to the National Assistance Trust Fund for Assisting Victims of Trafficking in 2020-2021. The report finds that “criminals involved in terrorist networks lure and recruit Kenyan adults and children to join non-state armed groups, primarily al-Shabab in Somalia, sometimes with fraudulent promises of lucrative employment.” For years, Al-Shabab has operated clandestine bases in Somalia just across Kenya’s eastern border, enabling the terror group to expand its operations into Kenya and other East African countries. “From my experience, they will befriend you and some of your friends and relatives on social media. You will feel safe because you have friends in common. They will even tell you that you grew up in the same neighborhood years ago. You end up trusting them very quickly and getting involved with them without asking the right questions,” Bakari cautions. Mukaru Muthomi, a police officer with the National Police Service, says that in 2019, Kenya banned trade between Kenya and Somalia through the Lamu border due to insecurity and combat criminal activities such as existing networks and syndicates dealing in human trafficking. The Lamu border crossing is one of four that join Kenya and Somalia, and other border points are in Kenya’s Mandera, Wajir, and Garissa Counties. He says the government is vigilant along the Dadaab and Mandera border point routes used by Somali refugees crossing into Kenya. Kenya hosts more than 500,000 refugees from Somalia. Mahmud says human trafficking is a pressing issue in Kenya partly because criminals are increasingly taking advantage of the large numbers of refugees from Ethiopia, Sudan, and Somalia to complicate the country’s fight against human trafficking. In 2019, the government identified 853 victims of human trafficking and another 383 victims in 2020. Mahmud is quick to warn that many cases have gone unreported, and COVID-19 hampered efforts to counter human trafficking. He also says there are not enough officers to combat human trafficking. Nevertheless, Kenya’s Trafficking in Persons Report shows the country’s investigative capacity of the Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit is gradually increasing. Personnel increased from 33 to 37 officers deployed in human trafficking hotspots. There are 27 officers in Nairobi and 10 in Mombasa, with plans to open a third office in Kisumu. “Increasing personnel is good, but the government must address the root of these problems because human trafficking into and out of Kenya is interlinked with poverty. Find job opportunities for young people,” Mahmud observes. The census, he says, showed that “3.7 million young people between 18 and 34 years without a job were not even actively looking for work because they have no hope of finding employment in Kenya. This is a ticking time bomb.” ■ Courtesy of Inter Press Service / International Network of Street Papers MARTA SHOMAN WORRY, BE GONE I am a renter in senior public housing. Growing old with failing vision and spotty hearing, supported by a personal economy of constriction: this, a formula for worry, fear and fret. I worry. And worry some more. What does it take to slow the anxious, slippery worry mind? To hear its’ monotonous beat each day and give it the kick? Worry: Who invited you to become an unwelcome companion messing with my emotional navigation system? Worry: You may be familiar, Like the dripping faucet whose washers are not replaced. Drip, drip, drip the worry until it runs dry. Worry: I call you out for what you are: a despot of distraction, determined, to derail confidence and hope. I pass you by. As I go, I feel your metal breath breathing across my neck: It is only worry. It is not me. A gift from life: all that is out of balance can right itself. You are a memory that no longer haunts me. Adios, worry. I leave you and head out into the morning sun to sing. To you, a ragged, colorless worry: you who has out-lived your droning mission. I give gratitude for daily, life lessons sharp and numbing; they now lie far behind me. Worry: I see you now. An empty frozen force that chokes courage from the heart, stirring jagged knives of doubt in the mind. WRITING THROUGH HARD TIMES COURTESY OF DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY AND LIGHTHOUSE WRITERS WORKSHOP The Hard Times Writing Workshop is a collaboration between Denver Public Library and Lighthouse Writers Workshop. It’s open to all members of the public, especially those experiencing homelessness. Each month, the Denver VOICE publishes a selection of writing from these workshops. Virtual workshops: lighthousewriters.org/workshop/denver-public-library-hard-times More writing by these featured poets: writedenver.org May 2022 DENVER VOICE 11
12 Publizr Home