A day or two before Christmas, the owners of battery charging joints are reminded to ensure that there is enough power to see a bright Christmas through. Owners of the business know they risk being evicted if they give a raw deal. The Christmas carols echoes every where as Christians head towards the church. It is always not surprising to meet seasonal brothers who have specific dates of to going to church.
On the dawn of Christmas, cackling of Hens and Cocks are heard cursing the merciless knives. Strong aroma that sends enzymes crazy is evident as you cannot avoid inhaling more than exhaling. A concept that beats science.
It is mid morning and our legs carry us to the nearby shopping centre together with my cousin. The actions in the normally dormant centre is a gesture that this is not just any other day. Each person in dressed in his or her glad rags (best clothing) with all manner of hair styles raging from Afro style-this is done using a heated grog (remains of a broken port) since the technology of a hot comb is a vocabulary to West Africa Didi for urbanites. Moving deeper into the shopping centre, we spotted young men in a heavy drinking spree with swollen swankies threatening to tear their singlets apart they in turn demand a leave allowance being that we have been in the “diaspora” long enough making some cash. In a rough estimation, they are in the age group of 17 to 28. This confirmed to me the statistics from the Kenya Demographic Health and Survey 2003 that one in five men aged 20-24 smoke cigarettes and almostly one of every three men aged 20-24 have consumed alcohol.
It is apparent that young women drink much less frequently than men. According to the recent study by National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NACADA), one out of every three youth have taken alcohol and 8.3% smoke cigarettes. 7 out of 10 university students have taken alcohol.
From a reproductive health back ground, curiosity drives us crazy and we get into a searching spree for a young man coordinating youth activities in the village. After an hour of search, we finally land on him. Our mission is to get a rough picture on the outcome of December holidays on reproductive health. He revealed to us that December normally see a lot of sexual activity among the youth as them that have sat for secondary and primary exams celebrate the “end of an era,” there is also high rate of pregnancies among the youth, school dropout and early marriages
In Kenya, studies show that adolescents are sexually active by the age4 13-19 years. Among adolescent girls, 15-19 years 44% have had sex, while among young women 20-24 years, 60% have had sex by age 20 years (KDHS 2003). Young men of age 15-24 have more sexual partners than women. 16% of ages 20-24 have had more than one sexual partner in the last one year.
After this intensive fact finding, we walk hastily back home to join the family members in marking the occasion. After 20 minutes walk, we are at home where we dig into the meal ending the session with a loud belch. Ladies and gentle men here are dancing their hearts out. Hip hop is prohibited and is instead replaced with Benga cutting us from the dance. Due to the understanding of the art of technology, we are branded as village celebrities-a title we hold for only a day.
As the days slip by we under took another fact finding mission. This time it is the impact of mobile phones on boy-girl relationship. After a half day long mission, we discover that mobile phone technology is still fascinating in the village. Another puzzle yet to be un ravalled is how mobile phones really works considering that telephone technology known here is landline. Having air time in the village is a luxury and the people have learnt the habit of being called back. We identified a young man whose girl friend owns a cell phone where we played a trick and gave him the phone to call his girl friend. The lady insisted that she needs air time to call back. We generously send the air time and switched off the phone. The lady called back and to her surprise the call is answered by a lady. Never mind this call was connected to the voice mail. The voice mail is still confusing here, the gentle man calls back and he is immediately accused of having another female lover. The man is at pains trying to give a justification. To salvage the situation, we invited her for a walk where we literally confirmed that it was a voice mail.
As opposed to the traditional days, dating in the village has b been simplified as a text message seals a date without the knowledge of parents. Them that cannot afford mobile phones have adapted “pass words” such as coughs, claps etc to alert their sweet hearts that they are passing by. Most young people here tend to be more cautious about pregnancy than HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections. Use of condoms is an act that is yet to be unanimously embraced as the argument is that it is like “eating sweets with a wrapper” hence the taste is lost in between. This is an attitude that requires urgent intervention to revert.
As young people, we must rise to the occasion and be get keepers of correct and consistent information to counter myths and romours embedding human sexuality. Many rural areas and slums in Kenya continue to report high incidences of drug abuse and pre marital sex.
In a deliberate move to turn the tides, I am submitting my candidacy for the President on a Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) in the country. I call upon the young people to join my “party” and get tested for HIV. No matter the result, we shall all be winners and every one is assured of a position in the party. In his words Nelson Mandela, “knowledge is the most lethal weapon you can use to conquer the world,” and in deed we shall all be winners and make responsible decisions in life with our HIV status in mind.
Article by: Victor Rasugu. Country Programme Coordinator-Network for Adolescent and Youth of Africa-Kenya Chapter
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