Investigating the Causes and Effects of Prostitution on Education and Health in Salgaa Town, Kenya

Abstract

Prostitution is a situation where a person is able to offer sexual services for monetary gains. It is an illegal activity in Kenya that has widely been practiced in urban areas such as Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa and Salgaa among others. Prostitution has in the recent past been on the lime light as some of the commercial sex workers have insisted that it should be declared a legal business just like any other. The government and health workers on the other hand have maintained that it has adverse effects on both health and education. Studies as to the causes and effects of prostitution have scantily been documented thus this study came in to fill this knowledge gap through investigating the causes and effects of prostitution on education and health in Salgaa Town. The study was guided by the Persons' sex role theory. This study used a sequential explanatory mixed method research design. The researcher had 152 respondents to answer the questionnaires. Purposive sampling was used to obtain the head of health workers and the head of education in Salgaa town for interviews. Data entry and analysis was conducted using SPSS software. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics while qualitative data obtained by interviews was analyzed through thematic content analysis. The findings of this study was of importance to the county government of Nakuru in that, it helped to know what makes people to engage in prostitution, the likely consequences and how to curb the menace.