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Female workers in various commercial banks in Gulu have come up to refute recent media reports that they are among several other working women in Gulu Municipality paying local boys there to have sex with them.  “It is true that during our free time, some of us spend time with male friends in bars and other entertainment spots in Gulu town but that does not mean we pay those guys to have sex with us,” said a lady working with a prominent bank that this website cannot mention due to the sensitivity of the matter. Another lady when asked about the sex allegations said: “It is true that I work in the bank in Gulu here and I have a boyfriend living in Gulu as well. He is the one I always go out with and enjoy some happy moments with. I don’t think I am paying him for sex. Our intimate relationship is out of the love we have for each other. She however said there is a group of ladies in Gulu who masquerade as bankers and yet they are not and that this group targets male visitors who frequent bars. “They want to raise their status so as to be taken serious by the male visitors,” she said, adding that some of the ladies in this group come from other districts.  Another female banker told this website that she has a boyfriend who is unemployed that she has been supporting him in some ways including taking him out. When asked whether she was not doing that because of the sex she receives from him, she said she didn’t think so. “I don’t think I am doing that because I want sex from him. I love him, I care about him. I know when he gets a job he will support me as well. Besides, I want to get married to him,” she said. However, further inquiry by this website revealed that indeed there are women paying young boys in Gulu town to have sex with them. “I know of a friend who has specialized in this business. Recently two working women wanted to fight over him. I had to force him out of the bar,” a resident of that town told this website. Alex Okoya, the Labour Line Parish LC II chairperson days ago said that commercial male sex workers exist in Gulu town due high demand by working-class women like bankers and high profile widows. He said the women book rooms outside of the town and it is where the boys meet them to have sex. Okoya said the boys are into the sex business as the previous jobs gave them little income. The mayor of Gulu of the town, George Labeja recently said there was a rise of commercial male sex workers in Gulu town, organised in groups and that they normally spend time in hot spot along Cemetery Road. He said the commercial male sex workers target rich working-class women who have burning sexual desires but are normally feared by responsible men who could have married them off. “These youths who are male sex workers they are going for rich women…These women are maybe rich but she lacks one ‘thing’ and that ‘thing’ she needs to buy it from these poor boys.” Labeja is quoted as saying. He is quoted saying that the increase in the number of commercial male sex workers in Gulu town is pushing back their efforts to fight HIV/AIDS in the area. He is quoted saying that the commercial male sex workers are headed by a former UN driver. That aside, this website has established that due to unemployment among the youth, some young men across major towns in Uganda are involved in commercial sex, where female clients pay them.
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We are not paying Gulu boys for sex – female bankers say
