Nudist generation leave little to imagination

When Uganda’s Ethics and Integrity minister Nsamba Baturo recently banned the wearing of miniskirts in Kampala, it was obvious that the man had never been to Kenya. Baturo was alarmed that skimpily dressed Kampala women were responsible for the rising cases of men driving into roundabouts and street light posts.

By Peter Thatiah

Hemlines are getting higher.

Gone are the days when Kenyans knew commercial sex workers by the way they dressed. In the last decade or so, and particularly in Nairobi, a trend has emerged whereby the dominant dressing code has ensured that the line between nudity and dressing is fast disappearing. Even churches have not been spared and horrified pastors are busy raising the alarm.

Last month, the pastor of Kisumu Pentecostal Church, Linus Ondiko, paraded young women who had come dressed like nudists in a church service. The pastor told Crazy Monday that the skimpily dressed women always chose to sit at the front.

He would no longer countenance a dressing code designed by the devil in hell, he warned.

Sylvester, a member of the church, says what alarmed the pastor was that some of these women (both married and single) seated at the front would deliberately part their legs when the sermon was in progress.

Anguish to the clergy

"The ladies especially targeted young and unmarried pastors by winking at them and parting their poorly covered legs causing a lot of anguish to the young clergymen," he says.

In Nairobi two weeks ago, members of the Neno Evangelism Centre found a billboard warning that women with waist-high slits, miniskirts and bikini-tight trousers were no longer welcome into the house of God.

A church official who did not wish to be named says that it had reached a point where you could not tell the difference between the twilight girls on Koinange Street and the said worshippers.

Welcome to the new Kenya where if you have it you flaunt it — whatever it is. Just a decade ago the in-thing with trendy women was the tumbo-cut T-shirt that left the midriff exposed up to the navel. Today things are tending downwards, with a majority now lowering their trousers strategically to expose the crotch. No one knows how much lower it will go.

With the trend gaining currency everywhere and more so in churches, many men today admit that the only reason they go to church is to view the different shapes displayed by the nudists. In fact many will agree that gone are the days when the discos provided the perfect meeting place for all manners of couples. The place to be today is the church.

Birdwatching

Commercial sex workers nowadays are finding it difficult to devise new ways to attract prospective customers because men can no longer tell them apart from the rest of the crowd. [PHOTOS/Robert Gicheru and file]

‘Brothers’ will call it bird watching, only that there are no birds in the church. Many men are finding it curious that the nudists not only want to show off the shapes and curves, but they are letting the men have a short preview of the contents nowadays.

"This church (name withheld) has got hot babes," remarked a colleague recently after a church service. Gone are the days when one went to church for purely spiritual needs. It is rather a sensual feast.

Kevin, whom I found on a street seat along Kenyatta Avenue, says whenever he gets a minute to spare from his office across the street he heads straight for the seat.

He is one of the many Nairobi men who are taking advantage of the state of affairs to get what he calls free entertainment or ogling sessions. With most slits nowadays showing whole freckled thighs complete with stretch marks, Kevin says he is not short of ‘birds’ to watch.

He says: "The trouser wearers are especially a treat to watch. They let you view even their G-strings by lowering the trousers so that a part of the bottom is also visible leaving little to the imagination. From here I can watch anything from the small fist-sized bottoms to the huge ones that can’t even fit in an office chair, all free of charge."

Gone too are the days when sexual affairs were sacrosanct issues guarded by social taboos. The display of a million versions of complete female anatomy is leaving in its wake a sinful trail. The message is clear: Sex has been removed from the bedroom to the street.

And the daring dress code seems to be accompanied by greater sexual permissiveness. Although statistics are hard to come by, there is evidence to suggest greater sexuality among the youth, the HIV/Aids scourge notwithstanding.

Condoms

A member of a church in the city says that the overnight prayers of his church, usually called kesha, have been scrapped after the church administration found 25 used condoms in the compound. Even sleepy villages in the countryside that have been guarded by rigid traditions from time immemorial have not been spared by the sinful generation either.

Ken, who works in the city, says he was shocked when he visited his village on the slopes of Mount Kenya and counted 10 discarded condoms between the bus stop and his home.

Sex workers

Commercial sex workers nowadays are finding it difficult to devise new ways to attract prospective customers because men can no longer tell them apart from the rest of the crowd. Also, haloing their eyes with mascara, applying lipstick that went past their natural lip lines and wearing brightly coloured Whitney wigs used to be their preserve. Not any more.

Emily, who dresses in provocative attire that shows every curve of her anatomy in the office, becomes edgy when I raise the subject, pointing out that it is nobody’s business but hers. Her colleague, Gladys, says she wears provocatively only when she wants to hook a man to take her out for a weekend. She says: "Showing as much as possible makes me feel more lovable."

Displaying too much

But Nick says displaying too much leaves nothing more to be desired. He adds: "The only positive thing about this nudism now common in town is that the women are teaching us not to take life so seriously. Given the hard economic times, it is good for them to distract us." But even as the trouser goes lower and the miniskirt’s hemline higher, many women speaking to Crazy Monday say they don’t show chunks of their private anatomy to attract men.

Whether this is true or not, observation in the street even to a casual observer tells a totally different story. The reason young women would want to show chunks of their bottoms and whole thighs to African males on the street is easy to get by the response the trend is attracting. But Jane says it is her right to dress how she likes and the men can choose not to look.

And as the sexual revolution gathers pace, no place is being spared the nudist exhibition. Only the men have been left behind, perhaps because they don’t have much to exhibit.

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