"Amina Shakir(not her real name) fled the drought and famine in Somalia for a better life in Kenya. But she did so illegally, placing her faith in the hands of a criminal network headed by agents of Swahili. In the end, her faith was misplaced as she was 'sold' into employment upon finally reaching Kenya. But Shakir is not the only one illegally crossing the border into Kenya. Natural disasters, armed conflict and famine devastating the Horn of Africa have caused an increase in the region. Womankind Kenya, a non-governmental organization based in Garissa in Kenya's North Eastern province estimate that fifty young girls are trafficked or smuggled to Nairobi from here and Somalia each week. Nairobi is the central market from where girls are distributed to different parts of Kenya and to other countries. Tour operators and hotel workers work as brokers and charge a fee of six hundred dollars for young girls aged ten and fifteen years who are mostly sold into sexual slavery. Traffickers prey on drought, poverty and conflict in the Horn of Africa to smuggle people to Nairobi and across the world with promise for a better life. Trafficking persons is now criminal and people involved in or convicted of the offence face a thirty year jail term and a fine of three hundred thousand dollars. The provincial police office in Coast Province says, 'One hundred and forty people are arrested weekly after being smuggled or trafficked into Kenya amounting to 7280 arrests per year.'"
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