The government has been urged to double its efforts in curbing sex exploitation and child labour in the country.
The US government has said it will strengthen civil society organizations involved in the fight against sex-child tourism and human trafficking in the country by funding their programs.
While briefing the press after holding a consultative meeting with stakeholders from the tourism sector in a Mombasa hotel, Dr Mark Lagon, who heads the US State Department in Combating Trafficking in Persons expressed concern that sex-child exploitation and forced labour has in the recent past increased in the African continent.
He called on the authorities to put in place comprehensive laws that will mete out severe sentences on the culprits.
The envoy identified the abyss of widespread poverty in the continent coupled with criminality, corruption and growing demands as the underlying factors fueling the sexual exploitation of children, forced labour and human trafficking around the globe.
The official while acknowledging that US citizens account for a large segment of those behind the scourge, disclosed that through the ''protect act'' in his country U.S. citizens involved in child prostitutions and other related crimes abroad are not free from being held accountable for the same.
Dr.Lagon,said in liaison with African countries, the State Department will offer training opportunities to police, judicial staffs and stewards in the classified tourist resorts and hotels in a bid to confront the demand for sex trade tourism.
Ambassador Lagon who is also the chair of the interministerial committee in human trafficking in the U.S. is in the country for the third leg of his weeklong tour of the continent and has already visited Nigeria and Ivory Coast.
The official will wound up his whirlwind visit in South Africa.
Mr.Mohamed Hersi,Chairman of the Kenya Association of Hotel Keepers said more than 60 classified Coastal resorts have signed the recently introduced code of conduct for hotels and tourist resorts aimed at compelling them to protect children from such exploitations.
Mr.Hersi said with the code of conduct, the tourism industry that is the economic mainstay of the coast is expected to commit itself to training their staffs on the issue of sexual exploitation of children thus contribute to fighting the vice.
The code of conduct is being implemented in collaboration with the government, Kenya Tourism Federation, Association of Hotel Keepers and Caterers, Mombasa and Coast Tourist Association and Kenya Tourist Board among others partners.
