Murkomen slams BBC’s defence of child sex trafficking exposé

Interior and Internal Security Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has fired back at the BBC following a statement released by the BBC defending their recently released documentary exposing child sex trafficking.

Murkomen has dismissed BBC’s statement while insisting that the ‘Madams’ documentray was a fabricated report and that he stands by it .The Interor CS made his remarks on Friday August 15 2025 at the National Police Training College in Embakasi where he insisted that BBC paid the actors to produce the story.

“They paid people to do the interview and we stand by our story that is the truth that they paid people to do the story,” Murkomen said.

While refuting the BBC statement released on Thursday, August 14, 2025, Murkomen has revealed that the Internal Security Ministry conducted a separate investigation which established that the BBC documentary was fake.

Similarly, the Interior CS further noted that following the investigation conducted by the DCI, it established that contrary to what BBC noted, the people interviewed were not underage.

“I went to Parliament, of cause we did investigations through the Directorate of Criminal Investigations,( DCI) it was established that that BBC documentary was fake because the people they interviewed were not under 18,” he said.

BBC response to Murkomen

Notably, Murkomen’s remarks sparked just a day after BBC News responded to previous claims made by him that the documentary highlighting sex trafficking among minors in Maai Mahiu titled ‘Madams: Exposing Kenya’s Child Sex Trade,’ was fake and meant to taint the country’s image. 

At the time, during a Q&A session in parliament on Wednesday, August 13, CS Murkomen claimed that a section of the girls in the video falsified their age to qualify for “promised sponsorship” by the British broadcaster. 

“Our Investigations have established that the BBC team primarily sought underage girls involved in sex work. However, some of the girls falsified their age to qualify for the promised sponsorship by the BBC team. No arrests have been made so far, but investigations are ongoing, including financial records and call data to link these parties and tracing witnesses,” Murkomen stated. 

In a statement on Thursday, August 14, 2025, BBC News maintained that none of the victims were paid, offered payment or ‘coached’ in any way.

Further adding that the victims who were interviewed were above the age of 18 and recounted experiences of abuse that occurred when they were underage. 

“We note with concern that following the broadcast of the film, survivors of childhood sexual abuse who contributed to the film were interviewed at length by investigators from the Kenya Directorate of Criminal Investigations without the presence of legal representation. There has also been a debate on the investigation in the Kenyan parliament,” the statement read in part. 

“For clarity, none of the contributors featured in this film were paid, offered payment or ‘coached’ in any way. As clearly stated in the film, the survivors of abuse who were interviewed were all over 18 and recounted experiences of abuse that occurred when they were underage. We are thankful to the survivors for their brave contributions,” BBC wrote.