Of sexual harassment and financial insecurity: The dirty price of creative industry

The room falls silent as Sumaya Musa takes the microphone. Then come the bars, one after another, delivered with the confidence of a woman who has spent years finding words for experiences often left unspoken.

Known by her stage name, Apondi Thee Poet, she moves across the stage, weaving poetry with stories of Kenya’s creative industry. Her words carry anger, pain and beauty, a reflection of the complicated reality of being a young woman trying to make a living from her art.

The crowd claps and cheers. But beneath the applause lies a painful reality: for some young women, talent is only one part of the price of entry into an industry where opportunities can be controlled by people with power, money and influence.

Sumaya was among young women creatives speaking at the launch of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) report, Behind the Scenes: Young Women and Gender-Based Inequities in Africa’s Creative Sector.

The study, covering Kenya and six other African countries, examines the barriers young women face in the creative economy.

For Sumaya, the findings reflect her own experience since she entered the slam poetry scene in 2021 and turned professional in late 2022.

“I would say the working environment has not quite been easy. There have been a lot of challenges,” she says.

Male dominance

“It’s male-dominated,” she says. “Sometimes you have to just go with the flow. You don’t necessarily have to engage with it, or maybe you don’t have to fight back because you want this opportunity.”

The power imbalance can make rejecting unwanted advances costly, particularly when the person making them is an organiser, producer or someone capable of opening doors.

“If you say no, they will not invite you to these events, to performance spaces, to influential spaces,” Sumaya says.

“Most of these people are very influential people. And if you don’t go with their flow, they tend not to invite you anymore,” she adds.

The report found that 68.13 per cent of young female creatives surveyed had experienced workplace sexual harassment, including unsolicited physical contact and explicit verbal remarks. Nearly 64 per cent reported coercive “sex-for-work” requests from male managers, while 52.01 per cent said their workplaces had no protective safeguards.

Rachel Stephanie Akinyi, a spoken-word artist known as Spontaneous the Poet, says she has witnessed women being expected to exchange sexual favours for professional opportunities.

“I have experienced female creatives having a challenge working with producers because they are expected to give sexual favours in return,” she says.

“Sometimes not getting the event opportunities as they are still expected to give sexual favours in return.”

Akinyi, who founded Female Poets Kenya and co-founded Anika Initiative, says reporting harassment can be difficult when the accused influences an artist’s career.

“There’s a lot of fear,” she says. “Secondly, who’s the perpetrator? Are they people who have a say in the artistic industry? Does that, therefore, mean that you might actually lose your job in the process in the name of stating facts?”

She adds that some women also fear blackmail. “If you go and report this, you will not get your album.”

Silent burden

The psychological burden can reinforce the silence. “I think the psychosocial aspect that comes with the thought of reporting these issues is what probably makes people become silent for a bit,” Akinyi says.

ICRW youth researcher Everlyne Kalea says the research exposed a culture in which some women are expected to offer more than their talent to access opportunities.

“Approximately 64 per cent of the female creatives were experiencing sex for work, where they’re requested, you have to give something to get something,” she says.

“If you’re not giving something to get something, then as a female creative, your work is overlooked.”

One participant in a focus group in Kisii County put it bluntly: “It’s either you know someone or you’re sleeping with someone.”

Sexual harassment is only one part of the inequality. The report found that 51 per cent of young female creatives experienced some form of gender discrimination.

Kalea says women are often judged by their appearance rather than their work.

“Mostly when you’re presenting your work to people, people don’t care what you’re showing. They are focusing more on how this person look?” she says.

Sumaya says she has personally lost opportunities because of how she looks and presents herself. When she was starting, she felt pressured to conform to expectations of how a female creative should dress and behave.

“I was like, I don’t think I can conform to this. I think I’ll be my own person,” she says.

But choosing authenticity has come at a cost. “Many times, just by the mere fact that you are a woman, you have to overprove yourself,” she says.

“Even after someone has seen your portfolio, even after you share your video links, even after you share your previous performances, someone still has a doubt.”

“For me, I’d have to overprove myself to get an opportunity.”

Anna Musaba, ICRW youth researcher, says discrimination continues even after women secure opportunities.

“Getting is just the first step,” she says. “You have to strive to prove over and over again that you are capable and you deserve your position that you are given.”

Pay is another fault line. Musaba says researchers encountered cases where women doing the same work as men were paid substantially less.

“You get a third of what the male creative has been paid for the same role, for the same time period, and everything,” she says.

Women can also face resistance when they move into leadership.

Musaba recalls a female director whose authority was questioned by male actors.

“Why are you the director? Why can’t another male be the director? Why should I follow you?” she recalls them asking.

Unsafe conditions

The working conditions themselves can create additional barriers. About 59 per cent of women surveyed said they were forced to avoid jobs involving irregular or night hours, with safety being a major concern.

A woman expected to perform at night may have to pay for transport home or find someone to accompany her.

“These extra costs are not part of whatever they were planning,” Kalea says.

Women with disabilities face additional challenges, including inaccessible venues and assumptions about their abilities.

The researchers also found basic gaps in workplace facilities. Kalea recalls a female creative in Mombasa who struggled to change clothes before a performance because there was no safe, private space.

“You want to change at a stage, but the men are there. So you’re wondering, how am I going to move from this outfit to another outfit?” she says.

For comedians, actors, poets and content creators, social media has opened new markets while creating another avenue for harassment.

Sylvia Savai, known as Senje Comedy, says she has repeatedly been bullied on TikTok.

“When you’re being bullied, there are other people who are always there cheering you on to continue getting bullied,” she says.

The abuse often targets her body. “I have men in my DMs,” she says, describing sexual comments that have forced her to block people.

“It is disrespectful when someone comments about your body part in a manner that... they’re sexualising it.”

The ICRW report found that 71.73 per cent of young female creatives had received inappropriate online messages, while 86.7 per cent had received negative comments about their appearance online or in person.

Savai says women are also pressured to conform to narrow beauty standards, including through skin bleaching.

“Most women on TikTok have decided to bleach, not because they want to, but because of the pressure they’ve been put through,” she says.

“Being lighter doesn’t mean that you’re prettier than a dark girl,” she adds.

She rejects the idea that public visibility makes a woman’s body public property.

“People have this expectation that if you’re famous, your body is supposed to be public property,” she says.

“I’m confident the way I am. So if someone is not happy with the way I look, that’s their own problem.”

The combined pressure of harassment, discrimination, financial insecurity and constant scrutiny can take a toll on mental health.

For Sumaya, the burden sometimes affects her ability to create. “At times it becomes very overwhelming,” she says.

“You’re not able to write. You’re not able to do any creative work. It just becomes a lot,” she continues.

She says some creatives eventually abandon their art, while others turn to substances to cope with abuse, financial struggles, performance anxiety and low self-esteem.

Akinyi says creating safer spaces requires both women and men to be part of the solution.

“You can’t fight an SGBV issue without having the  male counterparts as well in the conversation,” she says.

She has worked to create platforms for women through Female Poets Kenya, after experiencing what it was like to be the only woman in a creative space.

“I’ve been on that side of the poster, carrying 10 people and then you’re the only one lady,” she says.

“We also do a good job in the process. And our voices do also need to be heard,” she adds.

For Sumaya, safer workplaces must also include clear contracts, transparent payment and mechanisms for reporting harassment.

“First, if I’m engaging with a potential client, there needs to be utmost transparency in terms of payment, contracts and communication,” she says.

She wants clear safeguarding procedures so creatives know where to turn when something goes wrong.

“If this happens, who do I report to? If this happens, how do I handle this situation?” she asks.

The urgency is heightened by the growing economic importance of the creative sector. Figures presented in the report put Kenya’s creative economy at about five to 5.6 per cent of GDP, with technology, streaming and social media expanding opportunities for creators.

The Report described the creative economy as a potential “gold mine”, one of the country’s most dynamic and growing sectors and that by 2040, the sector could generate an additional US$20 billion (Sh2.6 trillion) and more than 20 million new jobs.

Policy response

Dr Linet Arisa, ICRW Senior Research Scientist, says the organisation wanted to understand how the sector could become a sustainable career for young people.

The goal, she says, is for creative work to become a “dignified, decent, fulfilling” profession rather than something dismissed as a side hustle.

But Arisa says informality remains a major source of vulnerability. “That is even the genesis of every problem,” she says. “Because it’s so informal.”

Freelancers and artists working on short-term engagements may have little protection when contracts are unclear or non-existent.

In such an environment, contracts can be difficult to enforce and intellectual property can be difficult to protect.

“A creative who negotiates for Sh20,000 may be offered Sh2,000 instead,” Arisa says, “and because the artist needs the money, they may have little choice but to accept.”

That vulnerability can also create room for exploitation.

“The lack of formalisation also makes it difficult to measure the true economic contribution of the creative sector,” Arisa says.

Because the sector is not fully documented, policymakers may underestimate its importance and consequently invest less in protecting the people working within it.

Formalise sector

The State Department for Youth Affairs and Creative Economy says efforts are underway to formalise and strengthen the sector.

Noah Otiende, Director of Film, Animation and Gaming Division at the State Department for Youth Affairs and Creative Economy, says the government is working on several policy frameworks, including the Creative Economy Policy and Creative Economy Bill, the Copyright and Related Rights Bill 2026, and the Youth Bill.

“These policy frameworks are frameworks that are sort of pushing the creative economy in the right direction because we’ve tried as much as possible to tackle issues and areas of challenge around the creative economy,” he says.

He acknowledges that the process is still ongoing. “I must agree that it’s still work in progress,” he says.

The government, he adds, is consulting creatives to ensure the policies reflect the realities of the sector.

Otiende also says fragmentation within the creative industry remains a challenge.

Creatives often work in isolation and have formed numerous associations within individual subsectors.

Under film, he says, there are nearly 15 associations, while music has several others.

The State Department is therefore pushing for greater social dialogue, bringing associations, creatives and government agencies together to discuss common challenges and solutions.

Inside Kenya’s creative industry struggles in numbers

SEXUAL HARASSMENT

68.13% of young female creatives surveyed experienced workplace sexual harassment.

64% faced requests for sexual favours in exchange for work opportunities.

52.01% said their workplaces lacked safeguards to protect them.

GENDER DISCRIMINATION

51% experienced gender discrimination.

Women reported having to overprove their abilities even after demonstrating their qualifications and portfolios.

Some women said they were paid as little as one-third of what male creatives received for similar work.

ONLINE ABUSE

71.73% received inappropriate online messages.

86.7% received negative comments about their appearance either online or in person.

SAFETY & WORKING CONDITIONS

59% avoided jobs involving irregular or night hours because of safety concerns.

Women with disabilities face additional barriers, including inaccessible venues and inadequate facilities.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Kenya’s creative economy contributes an estimated 5–5.6% of GDP.

By 2040, the sector could generate an additional $20 billion and more than 20 million jobs.

THE CHALLENGE:

A rapidly growing industry remains largely informal, leaving many young creatives vulnerable to exploitation, poor pay, harassment and limited workplace protection.