FJA Shortlist 2021
Category: Outstanding Investigative Reporting
Series: Hard Labour: The Surrogacy Industry in Kenya
Naipanoi Lepapa
The Elephant, Africa Uncensored - May 28, 2021
The original publications are available via the following links:
Hard Labour: The Surrogacy Industry in Kenya – Part I
Commercial surrogacy agencies market Kenya as a safe, affordable and welcoming surrogacy destination to desperate and guileless foreign couples via dozens of websites. They mostly operate legally under Kenyan laws. Some operate quietly out of private houses in the Nairobi suburbs. In one case, the actual ownership trail disappears into the secretive and anonymous offshore world via the UK and the obscure Marshall Islands.
Hard Labour: The Surrogacy Industry in Kenya – Part II
Commissioning parents who venture into the legal minefield of surrogacy in Kenya also risk losing their money, children, or both – either to the state who might intervene by taking the child away, or to surrogates who later backtrack and decide they want to keep the child. Allegations of human trafficking are also a real concern.