An interview with Cecilia Ayot, feminist activist and politician
Kenya is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. According to water.org, 15 million out of a population of 54 million Kenyans lack access to safe water and 37 million don’t have access to a safe toilet. While water scarcity has been an issue for decades, climate change is now intensifying the crisis, disproportionately affecting women and girls.
In Kenya, the responsibility of fetching water falls on women and girls. Due to the growing drought, families are increasingly desperate for water, and this too often leads to an inhumane practice called “sextortion,” where women and girls become victims of cartels controlling water distribution.
Cecilia Achieng Ayot, a Kenyan activist and former member of the Nairobi County Assembly, experienced this exploitation first hand as a little girl living in the slums of Kibera, and has been fighting against water cartels ever since.
“Sextortion is a very complex issue in my country,” Cecilia – known as May to her friends – explained. “The Nairobi City Council has instructed public institutions to sell water, but there are powerful cartels that have been running the business for many years. The amount of water available is limited, so to get a few litres, women and girls must queue for long hours or pay an amount that is unaffordable for most families. This puts women in a very vulnerable position because no one can survive without water. If you can’t afford what the cartel demands or can’t wait in line for hours, you already know what you are supposed to do. Before you realise it, they are already touching you inappropriately.”
Sextortion is exactly this: the extortion of sexual favours in exchange for a service – in this case, access to water. “It’s heartbreaking that women have to exchange sex in order to get a basic commodity like water,” Cecilia said. “This is why I became an activist and a feminist: I hope to live one day in a society where women’s rights and dignity are respected, and where they are economically empowered.”
Born without a choice: women at the mercy of water cartels
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Cecilia comes from a background where women face discrimination, exclusion and violence every day. “I grew up in an informal settlement in Kibera, where girls are raised in inhuman conditions. Bathrooms and toilets are usually a few hundred metres away from your house, which means that every time you walk to the shower, men make comments and humiliate you.”
In the informal settlements of Kibera, houses are very small, usually just with one bed for an entire family. “As you grow up, your parents would get an extra room for you, which is usually not close to where they live. Men often try to break into these rooms and take advantage of young girls. When you’re there, you are terrified most of the time because you know what happened to your siblings or friends.”
As if that weren’t enough, women are often forced to sell their bodies to survive. Cecilia explained how most of her friends became pregnant or contracted HIV at a very young age because water sellers exploited them when they were fetching water. Due to water scarcity, girls have to queue for hours to collect water, but if they want to go to school on time or return home early to get their homework done, there is only one way to avoid waiting: water cartels demand sexual favours, leaving young girls without a choice.
Even when queues are not an issue, the price water sellers charge is often too high for many families to afford. Once again, women can only bring water home through sexual exploitation.
“In the slum where I grew up there is a Royal Golf Club with a constant water supply. That green field is a symbol of the inequality in my country. My friends and I used to sneak in at night and ask the security guards to let us fetch water, and that’s where most bad things happened,” explained Cecilia, who still lives in Kibera but 300 metres away from the informal settlements – a 15-minute walk from her family home.
The fight against sextortion reaches the Nairobi County Assembly
Proud mother of nine children – five biological and four adopted – Cecilia was determined to create a different future for her kids. “Our parents had no strength to support us, while the rapists walked free. You’d see them every day, trying to cope with the traumas, knowing you couldn’t report them because they had bought their freedom.”
Although she was fortunate enough to attend high school, Cecilia had to drop out at 17 after becoming pregnant. Despite this, she was a role model in the eyes of her friends. “When bad things happened, they would come to me. I was their age or even younger, but I had to be tough and combative because everything around me was so terrifying. Somehow, a few years later, I was offered the chance to run for a political position as a member of the Nairobi City County Assembly. I don’t know what they saw in me – I was scared, vulnerable and desperate – but I decided to try.”
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The political campaign marked the beginning of a new wave of violence and harassment for Cecilia. “When I started speaking out about sextortion, my children and I were attacked several times. The cartels conspired against me and every morning, I woke up afraid. In the end, I lost the election, but I lost with dignity, earning the second place. I gained the trust of the people, who really wanted me to represent them. Seeing their disappointment was difficult at first, but it gave me the strength to return to the community and start again.”
At that point, Cecilia joined some feminist organisations and began raising awareness about gender discrimination alongside other women in her community. She also returned to school and earned her diploma, which made her more confident and ready to challenge societal norms. “For the 2017 elections, I was better prepared and many people supported my candidacy. I won, and this was a victory for all the women.”
However, sitting in the assembly proved more challenging than she had anticipated. “All my male counterparts reduced me to sexual commentary. Every time I walked into the assembly, it felt like I had my vagina on my forehead. I wanted to join the water committee, but the male leadership excluded me from all the relevant committees where I could address women’s issues and make meaningful changes.”
The ultimate goal: sex for water will be illegal
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Cecilia even considered resigning, but her commitment gave her the strength to persevere. She kept fighting by writing articles, giving interviews and speaking out in the county assembly to express her frustration. “They called me a feminist, but I didn’t even know what feminism was. My fight was about human rights, ensuring that my male counterparts’ wives, daughters and sisters had the same opportunities as men. Over time, I gained popularity in the assembly, even among other political parties.”
Finally, during her second term, Cecilia was given the opportunity to serve on two committees close to her heart: the water committee and the budget committee. She began asking tough questions: why is there no water in the slums while wealthy neighbourhoods receive government-supplied water? Why are water cartels allowed to exploit women with impunity?
Cecilia even proposed a law to criminalise sextortion related to water access, though the bill did not advance beyond the drafting stage. “There’s currently no law addressing this kind of exploitation. My bill on sextortion failed because other parties raised technicalities I couldn’t overcome. Still, I was able to call out the water cartels by name and highlight the issue in the county assembly, and that achievement continues to inspire me.”
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Cecilia’s political journey ended in 2022. Now, her dedication to women’s rights has transitioned into activism through a feminist organisation called Women’s Voices. Founded in 2007, the initiative focuses on educating women and children in need. Its core pillars include promoting human rights, combating climate change, fostering economic empowerment and building financial stability. “The people we help are still struggling with basic needs like malaria prevention, clean toilets and access to water. They don’t yet understand concepts like global warming, but we’re introducing these topics gradually through activities related, for example, to food production. In this way, we improve women’s lives now while also countering climate change in the long term.”
The challenges Cecilia faced when she was young remain a harsh reality today. “It’s shameful that these issues still persist, but I hope we’ll receive more support to ensure that, one day, sextortion will be addressed by law,” Cecilia concluded. “We just need to keep the conversation going, create awareness and share the contact information of human rights organisations that women can turn to for help. Women and men equally belong to this country, so we need to ensure that all women can live with dignity.”
This article is part of our newest Climate Change series, Women for Climate. To read more inspiring stories of everyday women making a real difference in the world, be sure to check out the latest edition of Wempower magazine, or listen to our podcast.