Students rebuke sex pests, ‘sponsors’

Kakamega High School perform a play ‘The Equilibrium’ at Kibabii University yesterday.

Adult males who are in the habit of hunting young college girls have been put on notice and their days numbered.

In no uncertain terms, students at the ongoing Kenya National Drama and Film Festival have said the men, popularly known as sponsors, are a big disruption in the lives of vulnerable and sometimes unsuspecting college girls keen to shape a positive life for themselves.

This theme dominated many of the choral verses presented at Kibabii University’s College Hall 3, with Kisiwa Technical Training Institute firing the first salvo with the item Kidude.

Kidude depicts a working middle class man with Sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) that he changes at will.

He also has a pot belly commonly known as public opinion. His hair is pitch black from the effects of peroxide found in many hair darkening chemicals, hiding his fast greying hair with a youthful look to kill.

He preys on young college girls with promises of a better living. The girls have to compromise their studies to satiate the sexual appetite of this bourgeois man.

The girls live on the fast lane, indulging in drugs and illicit sex. The end result is unwanted pregnancy.

Never seen again

It is at this point that the girls realise that the party is over as the sponsor runs away, denying any responsibility and blocking their numbers never to be heard or seen again.

The piece encourages hard work among girls, calls for social support from family and belief in the straight and narrow path to success.

Asumbi Teachers Training College also presented a play Tenda Belua with a similar theme of sexual exploitation of graduates and interns seeking work in a reputable newsroom.

The interns have to yield, albeit reluctantly, to sexual overtures should they want to get a permanent position or even a promotion.

Bumbe Technical Training Institute presented an item Next of Kin buttressing the theme on early pregnancies among students.

The play depicts a young woman faced with challenges and getting into bad company that leads not only to an unwanted pregnancy but a life-threatening abortion.

Kenya Utalli College, in their modern creative dance The Unbreakable, depicts a sad tale of a graduate, James Newton, who cannot secure a job in spite of good grades from college.

Having no social support from his society he slowly and dangerously falls into drug abuse and other social ills that put him in trouble with law.

“We are seeing the fete having less and less of gadgetry and more of vocal, body and facial expression especially in the verse category,” said Dr Charles Ong’ongo of Moi University.