BBC News
Under the scorching sun, the fishermen bargain with those
queuing up to buy: mainly women, who hope to make a small profit at the
local market.
The currency is sex, not money: women selling their bodies in the hope of taking back a prize catch.
The practice is known colloquially as "sex for fish" - or, in the Luo language of the area, "jaboya".
Lucy Odhiambo, 35, prepares her latest purchase for the market, descaling the fish and slitting them open to remove their innards. A widow and mother of five, she says women here are in a bind.
"I'm forced to pay for the fish with sex because I have no other means," she tells the BBC.
"Usually I sleep with one or two fishermen a week. I could get diseases but I have no other choice: I have my children to send to school. Jaboya is an evil practice."
The "disease" is indeed widespread here - the HIV infection rate in this area is almost 15%, double the national average - and it is largely down to "sex for fish".
Read more
The shores of Lake
Victoria in western Kenya bustle with business - wooden fishing boats
competing for space, carrying in the morning catch of tilapia, perch or
catfish.
But in this deeply poor part of Kenya, the transaction between fisherman and female market seller is rarely a financial one.
The practice is known colloquially as "sex for fish" - or, in the Luo language of the area, "jaboya".
Lucy Odhiambo, 35, prepares her latest purchase for the market, descaling the fish and slitting them open to remove their innards. A widow and mother of five, she says women here are in a bind.
"I'm forced to pay for the fish with sex because I have no other means," she tells the BBC.
"Usually I sleep with one or two fishermen a week. I could get diseases but I have no other choice: I have my children to send to school. Jaboya is an evil practice."
The "disease" is indeed widespread here - the HIV infection rate in this area is almost 15%, double the national average - and it is largely down to "sex for fish".
Read more
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