Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has claimed that the BBC Eye documentary on a child sex trafficking ring in Maai Mahiu, known as "MADAMS: Exposing Kenya's Child Sex Trade, might be flawed, adding that subjects interviewed in the piece were promised substantial payments and lifestyle benefits to be featured.
Murkomen said during a Wednesday, August 13, appearance before Parliament that the ministry's post-exposure investigations resulted in four women disclosing that the British media outlet had contacted them to allegedly seek out young, vulnerable girls between the ages of 17 and 21 for a fictitious foreign sponsorship programme.
While questioning the legitimacy of the underage girls featured in the documentary, Murkomen noted that their investigations revealed that the witnesses in the documentary were linked to each other, a sign that the information provided to the BBC might have been falsified.
He detailed that the sex workers interviewed had, in some instances, even involved their relatives in the arrangement, perhaps after learning of monetary rewards.
“Investigations reveal that the BBC primarily sought underage girls involved in sex work. However, some of the girls who testified allegedly falsified their age to qualify for the sponsorship,” Murkoment noted.
In his address, Murkomen disclosed that the two women portrayed in the documentary as child traffickers were reportedly promised significant sums of money and had since relocated to unknown locations.
Murkomen further said that the exposé should be considered as fake, as the witnesses interviewed were not underage as purported in the documentary.
In the documentary, investigative journalists managed to gain entry into an undercover child sex trafficking ring run by two women, known as ‘madams’. One of them claimed to have a girl as young as 13 years old in her care.
The documentary highlighted how the children were involved in the ring, mostly through manipulation, using sweets or money.
Contrastingly, the BBC asserted that they had sought a response from the government during their investigations, which was allegedly not given. The media house added that it gave all its evidence from the undercover investigation to the Kenyan police in March 2025, well before the documentary's release.
The documentary’s release sparked uproar from Kenyans, with many calling for the immediate arrest of the two women behind the ring.
On Friday, August 8, the Women Governors' Caucus urged the national government to take immediate action against all those involved in the child sex trade in Maai Mahiu and Naivasha.
