Taming COVID-19: Mbale sex workers cry out, housewives settled as bars and night clubs remain closed

By George Mangula

Walking around Mbale town in the night, one realizes that bars and night clubs are closed. This follows the recent directive by President Yoweri Museveni to close the facilities as one of the drastic measures to prevent the country from the imminent spread of the highly infectious Coronavirus (COVID-19). This has however as much dealt a blow to commercial sex workers in Mbale town who use the night-hangouts as their hunting grounds for men. The sex workers’ tears however have not found sympathy from the housewives, whose husbands have been enjoying nights away with the former.

Commercial sex or prostitution, an activity mainly seen to be carried out by the poor women in urban areas, many of them single mothers and teenage orphans, is illegal in Uganda, even though government has not put drastic measures to wipe it out. And that is how sex workers in Mbale town , probably like any other town in Uganda, including Kampala, are able to trade their bodies for money in order to meet their basic needs like food, clothing, healthcare, education and communication, among other necessities like rent and transportation.

The hotspots for the sex workers in Mbale town are night hangouts like Kigali Club, Hi 5, also known as Thatch Gardens, Club El Tanje, Embassy and other night clubs like Sukali and Sinamakosa. Museveni’s directive to close such bars and night clubs have left the hangouts without male visitors in the night, forcing some sex workers to stay at home or go to survive in the village where their families and relatives can provide them with at least free food, accommodation and water for drinking, bathing and washing.

In a brief interview with some of the prostitutes, they appreciated government for the measures it outlined to prevent Ugandans from catching COVID-19, even though some sex workers said the shutdown imposed on bars and night clubs has hit them hard financially since many of them don’t have alternative sources of income.

One of the prostitutes, Stella, 23, said: “Currently I cannot afford a meal for myself and my two girls. I am a single mother. My boyfriend who I met here in town left us, saying he was going to Kenya for work. It is now three years since he left and have never heard from him. He was the only caring for us before he went to Kenya in February 2007 and to pay rent and feed the children, I was advised by my female neighbor to visit bars and night clubs so as to get money from men in exchange for sex. I have done for the last 2 and half years but now the bars are closed and I am thinking of going back in the village to stay with my mother, who is a widow.”

Another sex worker who preferred to remain anonymous due to her kind of work, added: “The closure of Thatch Gardens and Sukali has made me to go without money for four days now. I used to get many clients from the two bars, most of them from Kampala, Soroti, Kenya, and Moroto. They love Bamasaaba girls. I was planning to pay off my January and February rental arrears but now I cannot because I have nowhere to get the money. I used to support my mother in the village using the money from prostitution but now I am unable to help her. The small restaurants where I could get some job as a food delivery girl are also doing badly as a few customers go there to eat due to COVID-19. Only God can save me now.”

“The fear of catching COVID-19 has made men in Mbale town to fear us prostitutes more. With AIDs and other sexually transmitted diseases, some men use condoms to protect themselves and would even call us to have sex in guest houses during day. However with COD-19, Men now see us as dangerous because they think we come in contact with many clients who could be carrying COVID-19,” said Ms Ndangire who added  that she has been unable to find a man where she stays in Namatala area since the ban was imposed on bars and night clubs. “I have already defaulted on the weekly contribution of Shs5000 to our SACCO, and yet we are fined Shs2000 if we skip paying the money,” she added.

The closure of night bars and clubs has made some ‘ladies of the night’ as they are referred to, to change tactics but they say they are not working. “I have started passing by the garages and markets during the day with the hope to attract men but it is not working. You know during the day you cannot dress skimpily like we do in the night and it is hard for men in the garages around Mbale town to recognise what you are up to. It is not easy but I do this because I have to survive as government puts measures for prevention of COVID-19,” said Miss Shanice, 25, a resident of Nkoma suburb in Northern Division.

“I have tried to call some of my male clients to see if we can meet in lodges during the day but they tell me they fear the lodges could have COVID-19. I have realized that alcohol influences men to have sex with us at night. During day it is hard for the men to meet us even if we call them to our rented rooms. So the closure of bars has affected us girls who depend on such men to survive on the daily basis,” adds Shanice, formerly a resident of Busia town on the border with Kenya.

Police authorities in Mbale town confirmed the closure of bars and night clubs has reduced the number of prostitutes on the town’s streets. “Since the President made the directive to close bars and night clubs, we see very few girls on the streets as we do night patrols,” a police officer on the night patrol told this reporter last Saturday, even though he preferred to remain anonymous for this story as he is not authorised to speak to reporters. “You are aware were implementing the president’s directive, so the earlier husbands go home the better. But of course this bad news for sex workers,” the officer added.

However, as prostitutes cry, housewives are happy that since the closure of night hangouts was announced by President Museveni due to COVID-19, their husbands now return home early, moreover carrying with them more items to be used at home. “My husband used to come home late in the night or the following morning. These days he comes home early because he fears the police could arrest him,” said Annie Nambafu, 27, a resident of Indian Quarters, located in Mbale’s Industrial Division.

For Florence, the closure of bars and night clubs has helped her husband to save some money he would have spent on alcohol and other women. “These days after work he comes straight home. He is always here by 7 pm. The other days he gave me money to keep for him, something he has never done before. I suspect alcohol and the other women he was having fun with were the reason he never gave the money before to keep. How I wish he continues giving the money to keep for him,” the mother of three.

In Mbale town, the closure of bars and night clubs has left prostitutes crying but the housewives are happy that they now receive home their husbands early since the bars and night clubs were closed. For the sex workers, though the country has confirmed one case of the virus, their prayer is that COVID-19 goes out of Uganda as soon as possible so that bars and night clubs are reopened for business. “Can you imagine that a 500 grams sachet of salt now costs between Shs500-Shs2000?” Asked Ms Stella.