Sex Education

Photo by João Paulo de Souza Oliveira from Pexels

It is interesting to note that the high school 8-4-4 curriculum (am yet to check on competence-based curriculum) provides teaching of Sex Education in the context of abstinence. The curriculum insists on teenage girls and boys from not engaging in pre-marital sexual practices and this keeps me wondering why the noise about Sex Education in schools!

Just a recap

Do you remember the Sexual Offense Amendment Act that was presented in parliament in 2016 to revise the age of consent from 18 years to 16 years? Most Kenyans called it outrageous; I also said that and to date, I still believe the amendment should push the age of consent to 21 years even though this goes against the UN Convention! https://www.unicef.org/lac/media/2806/file

The report was tabled about a research that was conducted concerning HIV& AIDS preference amongst the school-going children. It was noted that the majority of teenagers are actually positive as a result of engaging in irresponsible behavior. The highest percentage was found amongst the girls! The report alluded that most girls become active at the age of 12 while the boys at the age of 16. Strangely it was no shocker to the adult population as the cases of Machakos County in the recent past where 4000 school-going children have been found expectant. It has been whispered to me that the bill on Sex Education is being presented to parliament for debate.  The issue is not whether to teach Sex Education or not just like what Ezekiel mutual: The Director Kenya Films and Classification Board twittered during the controversial sex offense amendment bill. He said that we don’t have to protect our children from using the law. We can use other avenues that are friendly as we protect our children from the animals that are ready to devour them.

It is sad to note that our country has become so evil that a musician said in his song that ‘somethings we do the devil cannot even approve of them!’  The young have taken a cue from us. We are yet to agree on with my good friend and classmate Naomi Chela on who should be ‘converted’ first: the teenagers or the adults.

I know most of us will say yes if the government poses the question: whether the bill on the introduction of sex education to our children is the right thing to do at this moment?, but the question needs to be rephrased so that we get to really understand why a group of religious leaders are against the bill; is it right to teach our children at this point on engaging in protective sex or is it right to teach the use of contraceptives to our teenage children because the same will lead to having condom dispensers in our school with the famous advertisement in 2017: Kitu ni Kukachora. Or insist that the curriculum focuses on abstinence? https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000227952/sex-at-16-why-debate-on-the-age-of-consent-has-gone-a-notch-higher.

 It is sad to note that girls are introduced to sex earlier than boys. The reason for this is still not clear but most research shows that most because girls mature faster than boys that could be the reason because they feel to be ‘adults earlier!

Yes, our children are actively engaging in sex. Every adult agrees with the sentiment.  Let not this lead us into introducing something that may worsen the situation we are in currently. We don’t have to give up on our children at this stage. As a society let us take time to bombard our children with the right principles instead of leaving it to our social media and media houses that are busy looking for viewership in the name of sex content sales the most! I still believe that the only way to fight this is to teach our children Sex Education that is appropriate and recommended by the Quran and the Bible. It has worked in the past because most of us first attempted sex while on campus while most of us are married to men and women we first had a sexual encounter with!

Kenya is our country and as its residents and citizens, we hold a bigger responsibility of raising our children to be respected citizens in the future. Let us not allow ill-intended people to push the agenda of our country. They are our children and we are their parents. We hold more rights than the UN conventions as one of the Jubilee Asili members (formally Tangatanga movement said) we are Africa and Africa is our business.  Let us focus our children in the right direction. We don’t have to give them a better way of sinning! But let us guide them to do the right thing.it is not easy but we are resilient enough to endure the storm. We struggled for 24 years to realize the fruits of democracy we can also do it.

I finish by wishing Baba well. Dennis Itumbi suggested that Mzee is not feeling well but his handlers said that he is fine because he is attending a virtual conference on infrastructural development of Africa focusing on the creation of a dam that will open Africa for agriculture from Congo (as if Kenya doesn’t have internet). Please take notes on new developments about Mukhisa Kituyi and Kivutha Kibwana's presidency and as we open the inter-county partial lockdown and our domestic flights let us remember to always keep a two-meter social distance.

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