DETERMINANTS OF CHILD SEX EXPLOITATION BY TOURISTS IN KENYA: A CASE STUDY OF MOMBASA NORTH COAST

Abstract

Kenya is synonymous with Safari destination in tourism circles internationally because of its main two products namely; wildlife and Coastal beach. However, cultural and sex tourism products are becoming prevalent to tourist, such that the tourism industry is facing different challenges towards child sex exploitation by tourists (CSET) in Kenya. The purpose of this research was to find the determinants of CSET in Mombasa North Coast, Kenya (MNCK). The research adopted descriptive design. The target population was 108,778 (County government of Kilifi and Mombasa, 2017) children involved in sex tourism industry and sample size of 384 children were selected using Krejcie and Morgan Table (1970). The study used both purposive sampling and stratification methods in sampling the children. Convenient method was used to select 22 tourist hotels out of 44 tourist hotels (KAHC, 2018) in MNCK. Descriptive research design was adopted for the study with the use of Purposive sampling method to sample the population both primary and secondary data which was collected by use of questionnaire survey and direct observation. and Descriptive analysis was used to analyse the data collected. With help of statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS) whereby chi-square (χ2

), ANOVA and descriptive tests were performed. The researcher conducted a Correlation analysis to investigate the existence and nature of relationship between dependent variable (CSET) and in dependent variable (poverty, illiteracy, culture, modern technology, peer pressure). The study established that CSET is strongly influenced

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by poverty, illiteracy, culture, modern technology, peer pressure respectively as indicated by a Pearson correlation coefficient of .726** .4311** .648** and. 618** This relationship was found to be statistically significant as the significant value of 0.000 which is less than 0.05 threshold. The study concluded that poverty is the major factor leading to the widespread of CSET in MNCK followed by peer pressure, illiteracy, modern technology and finally culture. This study recommends that In order to eradicate CSET at Mombasa North Coast, there is need to adopt deterrent measures apart from curative measures and may be adopted at different levels. The government should have a tourism policy on sustainable tourism to local community focusing on children which is tourism sustainability and intendeds to involve and improve the living standard of the children by generating and retaining revenue in the local community through employment. There should be skills training and entrepreneurship activities within the community to the children by assisting them to go back to learning schools/institutions and have programs to retain them for future life. Further research should be done to establish the relationship between child drug abuse and child sex exploitation; entrepreneurship opportunities for children at Mombasa North Coast; and, development of tourist education/learning programmes for the children at Mombasa North Coast.