Welcome to Nairobi, where your “meet-cute” at a mall is actually just an uncredited pre-production meeting for a Russian’s TikTok feed. Yaytseslav - try pronouncing that without a headache - has been treating our sisters like collectibles, filming them in “incognito” mode to entertain his global subscribers. It’s the same tired script: a foreign accent, a bit of “mzungu” charm, and suddenly, everyone forgets that privacy isn’t just a word in a legal textbook nobody actually reads.

The internet is currently split between outrage and the usual Nairobi “vibes and insha’Allah” attitude. People are asking why these women are following strangers to Airbnbs in a year where femicide is the headline every other week. Look, I’m not here to victim-blame, but let’s be real - the thirst for a “soft life” or a passport out of this crumbling economy is a powerful drug. When users like Zoe are commenting that he “doesn’t seem that bad,” you realize we’ve been conditioned to think a ring light and a foreign passport equal safety, even when the red flags are flying higher than the flag at State House.

Our legal experts are busy quoting Article 31 and the Data Protection Act like they actually mean something on the streets of River Road. Ksh 5 million fines and 10 years in prison sound great on paper, but since when did the system prioritize a woman’s reputation over a “content creator” with a foreign passport? These laws are like The 10k Circus: Why We’re Still Catching Small Fry While the Sharks Swim Free - designed to sound tough in a press release while the real predators dance through the loopholes and head to the airport.

Consent to sex is not consent to being a viral sensation for lonely teenagers in Moscow or Lagos. But in the era of “clout,” everything is a commodity, including your face and what you do behind closed doors. This guy has done this in Nigeria, South Africa, and Ghana. He’s on a continent-wide tour of exploitation, and we’re just the latest stop on his itinerary. By the time the KFCB finishes “investigating,” he’ll be filming his next “adventure” in Addis, and the victims will be left with nothing but “Form DPC 1” and a lifetime of digital shame.

At the end of the day, Nairobi is a hunting ground, and the predators have upgraded from lions to iPhones. We can talk about “robust legal protection” until we’re blue in the face, but as long as the desperation for validation outweighs basic survival instincts, these TikTokers will keep treating our malls like casting couches. Stay woke, because in this city, if the “vibe” feels too good to be true, you’re probably just the unpaid extra in someone else’s monetization strategy.