Commercial sex worker, 28, found dead in lodging after night with client

A 28-year-old woman, who works as a commercial sex worker in Rongai, Nakuru County, was on Friday morning (November 6) found dead inside a Salgaa lodging facility that she had booked herself into with a client on Thursday night.

The deceased, identified as Mercy Chelangat, had visible physical injuries inflicted on the forehead.

Salgaa Chief, David Waweru, told K24 Digital that attendants at the guest house, Flyover Lodging, discovered Chelangat’s body soaked in blood when they accessed her room for cleaning in the wee hours of Friday morning.

“She had bruises on the forehead. It appears her attacker smashed a glass bottle against her forehead. The bedding that she had been wrapped in, was soaked in blood,” said Chief Waweru.

The administrator said the Flyover Lodging workers filed a report at the nearby Salgaa Police Station.

The law enforcement officers, thereafter, went to the scene and took Chelangat’s body to the Nakuru County mortuary.

“We are yet to arrest the man Mercy spent Thursday night with. However, we have launched a hunt for him,” said Waweru.

According to police, “it is a bit challenging” to know who Mercy was with Thursday night, given she booked the guest room in her name.

Rongai OCPD, Shadrack Marua, said investigations into Mercy’s death have commenced.

Residents say “too much alcohol” consumed by the commercial sex workers affects their ability to react to danger posed to them by some of their violent clients.

Nominated MCA Rachael Maru urged parents to keep a close watch on what their young daughters are doing for a living.

“I understand that some of these girls are trading their bodies for as little as Ksh20 to survive the tough economic times wrought by the coronavirus crisis. Parents should strive to support their children so as to stop them (daughters) from resorting to prostitution to eke a living,” said Maru.

In the recent past, commercial sex workers in Nakuru, especially those operating in truck drivers’ stop-off points such as Salgaa, Kikopey and Mai Mahiu, have been killed in brutal and unclear circumstances.

In 2015, four commercial sex workers were killed and skinned by a yet-to-be-arrested serial murderer.