Kilifi Tourism Stakeholders Launch Campaign to End Harassment of Hotel Workers

Tourism stakeholders in Kilifi County have begun a campaign against harassment of hotel employees in the area to safeguard work ethics and bring sanity to the tourism sector.

This is after it was revealed that more than 90 percent of hotel employees in the area underwent various forms of harassment at the work place including Gender Based Violence (GBV), digital violence and sextortion which were negatively affecting their productivity.

The Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA) has partnered with the Kenya Association of Women in Tourism (KAWT) Kilifi Chapter to train the hotel employees and managements on the importance of safeguarding themselves and their guests against harassment noting that 9 in 10 women in the hospitality workforce have been sexually harassed on the job.

Mrs Wanjiku Gathogo from KUDHEIHA said that the training will be conducted in all hotels so that all employees get to understand their rights.

“We’ve realized that in the hospitality industry many employees face sexual gender-based violence and the matters are not reported since they don’t know where to channel the complaints but the new generation of employees have come out strongly to talk about it,” she said.

She added that most employees get harassed without realizing that they were being subjected to harassment since the hospitality industry was all about entertainment yet entertainment had no clear boundaries.

“One of the slogans in the industry is that the guests are always right and, in that part, you’ll find that harassment will kick in and the rights of employees will not be protected because it will be difficult for them to report that a guest who has brought money is the one behind the SGBV. And you find that as an industry we entertain and that’s when we lack boundaries,” she added.

Kate Mwikali, who is a member of KAWT said that more than 100 employees from select hotels in Malindi town have been trained and that they will be ambassadors to their fellow employees.

“As Kenya Association of Women in Tourism Kilifi Chapter, we’ve partnered with KUDHEIHA to train employees in the hotel industry on maters SGBV and it is important because we know that there is a lot of staff turnover when it comes to sexual harassment or matters that are never reported and most hotels don’t even have policies to do with the SGBV,” she said.

She added that, “We are moving away from just compliance to it being a cultural change on whether the laws are there or not, people are doing the right thing and they are providing a safe environment for employees and guests.”

Jorge Ducoing, the General Manager of Diamonds hotels in Malindi which hosted one of the training sessions said that his establishment will protect both its employees and guests from any form of harassment.

‘It’s very important for us to talk to employees about sexual harassment and the behavior they should have in the work place and it’s very important for everybody to know how to conduct themselves and this also goes to our guests,” he said.