Mbale’s ladies of the night
Dec 17, 2003
IT is a breezy night and there is silence save for the whistling of the wind. The streets are dimly lit and most of the buildings in town are deserted
By Fred Nangoli
IT is a breezy night and there is silence save for the whistling of the wind. The streets are dimly lit and most of the buildings in town are deserted.
A violent breeze from Mt. Elgon occasionally sweeps over the dusty street and blows the dust into my eyes.
It is close to midnight and only a few people can be spotted along the streets. Some move in pairs while others walk alone. They all seem reluctant to get to their destinations.
Despite the windy atmosphere, my face is covered with droplets of sweat, my shirt is wet and my legs shaking with fear, as I hurry past dark corridors separating one old building from the another along Naboa Road in Mbale town.
A few meters ahead, the occasional laughter of female voices fills the air as well as the exhaust fumes from a few speeding cars.
The voices are emerging from dimly lit corridors where female shadows can be seen. Closer by, I see more figures some leaning over the walls, while others shake their bodies seductively.
A speeding car zooms past and comes to a sudden halt near one of the corridors.
Women dressed in tight, skimpy, transparent clothes emerge from the corridors and crowd around the car. One of them jumps into the front seat of the car. The car speeds off towards Republic Street as the rest of the women retreat to the corridors.
Further down the street, three men are negotiating with six women.
I hurry past one of the dark corridors where the women are whistling to every passerby and I am surrounded by five sex workers.
“Uncle you can pay tomorrow,†one of them says as the others go over my body like security officers doing a body search.
I tell them I gave my last coin to their colleagues a few meters away but they will not let me go. I struggle to get free and like an Olympic star, run for dear life. The women shout all sorts of vulgarities but I am not bothered. Moments later I realise all my business cards have been snatched from my pocket but my money is safely hidden in my socks.
Mbale’s sex workers also hang around the Lorry Park, East Nile and near the main Post Office building. Others hang around Club Oasis, Wimpy, and Ashok.
“They surface in the wee hours of the morning and retire to their residences just before daybreak,†says Ivan Gidudu, a second hand clothes dealer.
The women speak fluent English, Luganda and a bit of Kiswahili.
“These women have classes. There is the cheap lot and the expensive lot, but there are no fixed prices,†says Hassan Wambwa a bar tender.
“Those along Naboa Road, and places like Lorry Park are the cheap class. While those who hang around the night clubs charge a lot more for their services,†he adds.
There are claims that some of the prostitutes are students who reside in some of the mushrooming hostels around town.
“That is why many of them conduct their business in dark corridors. They fear to be identified by their colleagues,†says Samuel Masaba a student of Mbale Senior Secondary School.
Around the suburbs of Mbale, Christian volunteers are campaigning against prostitution and convincing those in trade to abandon it. They sat it is because of such immoral behaviour that HIV/AIDS has continued to spread.
The New Eden Ministries (TENEM) has also joined the campaign against immorality and taken its message to schools. Here TENEM clubs have been established to restore morality among the students and to carry out sex education and counselling.
TENEM has now taken on the role of wooing the prostitutes off the streets. “We have told them of the dangers of the trade. We counsel and encourage them to live godly lives,†explains Fred Waswa, a TENEM official.
TENEM stared in November 2002 and now boosts of 2000 members, many of whom are ex-prostitutes, primary and secondary school students and teachers.
They have visited over 100 schools in Mbale were the dangers of prostitution and HIV/AIDS awareness have been stressed.
IT is a breezy night and there is silence save for the whistling of the wind. The streets are dimly lit and most of the buildings in town are deserted.
A violent breeze from Mt. Elgon occasionally sweeps over the dusty street and blows the dust into my eyes.
It is close to midnight and only a few people can be spotted along the streets. Some move in pairs while others walk alone. They all seem reluctant to get to their destinations.
Despite the windy atmosphere, my face is covered with droplets of sweat, my shirt is wet and my legs shaking with fear, as I hurry past dark corridors separating one old building from the another along Naboa Road in Mbale town.
A few meters ahead, the occasional laughter of female voices fills the air as well as the exhaust fumes from a few speeding cars.
The voices are emerging from dimly lit corridors where female shadows can be seen. Closer by, I see more figures some leaning over the walls, while others shake their bodies seductively.
A speeding car zooms past and comes to a sudden halt near one of the corridors.
Women dressed in tight, skimpy, transparent clothes emerge from the corridors and crowd around the car. One of them jumps into the front seat of the car. The car speeds off towards Republic Street as the rest of the women retreat to the corridors.
Further down the street, three men are negotiating with six women.
I hurry past one of the dark corridors where the women are whistling to every passerby and I am surrounded by five sex workers.
“Uncle you can pay tomorrow,†one of them says as the others go over my body like security officers doing a body search.
I tell them I gave my last coin to their colleagues a few meters away but they will not let me go. I struggle to get free and like an Olympic star, run for dear life. The women shout all sorts of vulgarities but I am not bothered. Moments later I realise all my business cards have been snatched from my pocket but my money is safely hidden in my socks.
Mbale’s sex workers also hang around the Lorry Park, East Nile and near the main Post Office building. Others hang around Club Oasis, Wimpy, and Ashok.
“They surface in the wee hours of the morning and retire to their residences just before daybreak,†says Ivan Gidudu, a second hand clothes dealer.
The women speak fluent English, Luganda and a bit of Kiswahili.
“These women have classes. There is the cheap lot and the expensive lot, but there are no fixed prices,†says Hassan Wambwa a bar tender.
“Those along Naboa Road, and places like Lorry Park are the cheap class. While those who hang around the night clubs charge a lot more for their services,†he adds.
There are claims that some of the prostitutes are students who reside in some of the mushrooming hostels around town.
“That is why many of them conduct their business in dark corridors. They fear to be identified by their colleagues,†says Samuel Masaba a student of Mbale Senior Secondary School.
Around the suburbs of Mbale, Christian volunteers are campaigning against prostitution and convincing those in trade to abandon it. They sat it is because of such immoral behaviour that HIV/AIDS has continued to spread.
The New Eden Ministries (TENEM) has also joined the campaign against immorality and taken its message to schools. Here TENEM clubs have been established to restore morality among the students and to carry out sex education and counselling.
TENEM has now taken on the role of wooing the prostitutes off the streets. “We have told them of the dangers of the trade. We counsel and encourage them to live godly lives,†explains Fred Waswa, a TENEM official.
TENEM stared in November 2002 and now boosts of 2000 members, many of whom are ex-prostitutes, primary and secondary school students and teachers.
They have visited over 100 schools in Mbale were the dangers of prostitution and HIV/AIDS awareness have been stressed.