Several hours spent researching teenage pregnancy and sexuality in Kenya
have yielded some very interesting finds on popular opinion and current events.
Sex is rarely addressed in public in the Kenyan society despite an increasing sexualized mass media. The influence of the global pop culture that mimics the socially liberal western world sends suggestive messages to the young minds. Increasingly, Kenyan youth find themselves stuck between a sexual pop culture and a traditional conservative culture. These adolescents experience turmoil resulting from the conflicting values as Kenya becomes more urban and industrialised.
It is not surprising that parents find it taxing to speak to their children about sex since they did not themselves have such discussions their parents growing up. In their generation, sex was between a man and a woman in the privacy of their home when their children were asleep under the sheets. There was no question about it: sex was between married couples.
According to anthropologists, many African communities only discussed sex when there was a problem. However, the HIV/Aids pandemic in sub Saharan Africa has impelled the discussion of sex and risks associated with it to the public domain.
In Kenya, where premarital sex among teenagers is on the rise, it has become evident that such discussions are urgent and need to be as inclusive as possible. Births to unmarried teenagers have been rising, as have back alley abortions. These are just a few of the ramifications of irresponsible sex among teenagers, which also present themselves in a myriad other manifestations such as, school dropouts, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and reduced employment opportunities.
In common practice, the responsibility of raising a child born to an unwed teenage mother is left to the girl and her family. This practice has been seen as a side effect of the lack of equal education for boys and girls in Kenya. Boys have been, for the longest time, the preferred children. Many families, with limited resources, would send only their sons to school. Girls on the other hand would be pressed into work early, receiving an informal education at home where they were taught lessons in motherhood and the roles of a wife. Later, she would be married off prematurely for bride price.
The dearth of economic opportunities combined with the gender inequalities resulted in poor academic performance in the past forcing teenage girls out of school as they took on motherhood. Today, however, teenage girls, for the most part, have an equal opportunity to an education like the boys.
Increasingly, more families invest in education while marriage and early pregnancies are seen as limiting school and work opportunities. Free education continues to give teenage girls an opportunity to have an education, even where families are unwilling or unable to dedicate resources to educating their girls. However, the consequences of early sex and pregnancy seem more severe now than they were in the past. With dependency ratios at an all-time high and the cost of living already astronomical, it is much harder to support an unplanned pregnancy. In addition there is the risk, though diminishing of HIV-AIDS contraction.
The difference in treatment for teenage girls and boys has contributed to the sexual double standard that exists in modern Kenya today. Even though it is now illegal to be expelled from school due to pregnancy, it is still very difficult for a girl finding herself to carry on with her education as far as she can uninterrupted.
The teaching of abstinence as a solution to the unplanned corollaries of sex in minors has been criticized and hardly anyone in a position of responsibility deems it an effective model in today’s society. Many people I have talked to especially in academia that have had a problem with the promotion of abstinence education, do so because it stems from a religious milieu. Still, with all the negativity surrounding abstinence education, we cannot deny the positives that come with it. There is zero risk of attaining a sexually transmitted disease as well as zero risk of pregnancy. It is 100% fool proof and guaranteed to keep these girls out of early child rearing and in school where they need to be in order to gain for themselves independent and economically competitive futures.
It is important now to craft solutions to combat the problem of teenage pregnancy that incorporates all aspects of modern Kenyan society. Such methods need to focus not just on the sexual aspect of it however, but also on what happens should a teenage girl fall pregnant. Kenya is at a crossroads. Resources, by the government, educational and religious institutions, need to be directed at sex education to children in an attempt to combat teenage pregnancy and HIV/AIDS. At the same time, society (parents) cannot expect teachers to carry the brunt of educating their children on all aspects of life. Such knowledge, like charity begins at home.
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By the way. Increasingly, there are reports of Nairobi women, who are looking for children to adopt.