Sextortion: That's the threat for women who are simply trying to buy clean water

Zubedah Hassan, 32, at home in Kibera. She works as a champion for the Stop Sex for Water program, encouraging women and girls to speak out if they face sexual violence from water vendors or are groped or peeped on in public bathrooms. "The main problem is poverty," she says. "A girl tries to save money on water by doing favors for a vendor. Another challenge is drought. You find schoolchildren waking up very early to go and look for water and being raped along the small paths they take." Nick Parisse for NPR hide caption toggle caption Nick Parisse for NPR Early one morning, Saly Amutwayi unlocks the door to her small hair salon. Inside, the walls are painted a faded blue, with posters of braided hairstyles curled at the edges. The salon is in Kibera, the African continent's largest slum, just a few miles from central Nairobi, Kenya's capital and largest city. Before clients arrive, Amutwayi speaks quietly with her friend Mariam Hassan. Like many women in Kibera, they are responsible for collecting water for their households — a task that can take hours each day. And like many women in Kibera, both say they have experienced sexual violence while trying to get it. "When there is no water," Amutwayi says, "everything becomes dangerous." In Kenya's informal settlements — densely populated neighborhoods where residents have no legal title to the land they live on, and which the state has largely left without formal infrastructure like piped water — residents rely on private vendors who control access to water and set prices. Rights groups say that in places like Kibera, this dependence has created conditions in which women who cannot afford water face harassment, assault or coercion — including pressure to exchange sex for water, a practice known as "sextortion." Saly Amutwayi styles Mariam Hassan's hair. Both women have faced sexual assault as they tried to purchase water from a vendor. Hassan worries for her young daughter: "My baby girl is 8 years old. I will not send her to get water in the evening because of the experiences I have had." She hopes education will help their children and other young women in Kibera, a slum neighborhood in Nairobi, Kenya: "Our parents never taught us about sexual harassment, but we are teaching our young girls." Amutwayi wants to see men included in the conversations around sexual violence: "The boys need classes. All these lessons, most women understand, but men need to learn." Nick Parisse for NPR hide caption toggle caption Nick Parisse for NPR After more than a decade of advocacy led by Kenyan water-sector groups, the issue reached Parliament in 2024. It was the first time lawmakers took up the issue. Campaigners describe it as a breakthrough for a form of gender-based violence that has long gone unaddressed. A basic need — and a daily risk Kenya's Constitution guarantees access to clean and safe water. But in Kibera, public water pipes rarely reach individual households. Instead, residents buy water by the jerrycan, yellow plastic containers that hold about a quarter-gallon, from kiosks, street carts or storage tanks, often at prices that fluctuate and can strain household budgets. Billy Misuga, 25, works at a government-sponsored water kiosk in Kibera. "People are fighting for water. I let them fill even if they don't pay," he says. Nick Parisse for NPR hide caption toggle caption Nick Parisse for NPR Water becomes scarcer and more expensive during shortages, which have become more frequent amid prolonged drought. Women who have experienced sexual violence in their efforts to obtain water and the advocates who work with them say that is when the risk of harassment and sexual violence increases. During one such shortage, Amutwayi went to buy water from a vendor point on the street but did not have enough money to pay the full price. She says three men selling water began making comments about her appearance and then tried to force her into a nearby alley. She screame