There is something sorely lacking in society when moral decadence and depravity become social norms. It gets worse when citizens are seen to revel in activity that is clearly unacceptable in many societies.
What are we to make of the case coming to a Mombasa court this morning of beautiful, young and clearly educated women sinking economic activity to a new level as to engage in bestiality? Has the rat race to catch up with the Joneses obscured any sense of self-esteem? Should we not pinch ourselves awake when, annually, report after report show an increase in sexual offences, child, spousal, and substance abuse?
Such offences leave victims, their close relatives and even the animals used in performing acts against the order of nature with permanent emotional scars. Cases of defilement of minors, gang rape during robberies, sodomy and sexual harassment of junior employees for sexual favours in return for job opportunities, promotions at work or consideration for pay increases or other service, are becoming fashionable.
Moral cesspit
The scars, physical and emotional, distort victims’ reality, especially if they are children. Schoolgirls who are defiled by teachers risk getting pregnant and even contracting sexually-transmitted diseases and the life-threatening HIV. Such assaults undermine the children’s confidence and self-esteem and leave them distrusting of adults and any figure of authority for life.
And when their schooling is interrupted or curtailed by cradle snatchers, the cycle of poverty is firmed and opportunity for advancement curtailed forever.
Are heads of households aware that the Trafficking in Persons Protocol covers the children they put to labour as house maids? How many of them pay a decent wage, or even the proverbial “Government minimum wage”? Is it right that traffickers ferry youngsters from rural areas with the promise of instant employment only to consign many of them to working long hours, for poor wages and exposure to sexual harassment?
Do you think the label of debauchery that are now ‘Naivegas’ and ‘Naksvegas’ were what the Governors of Naivasha and Nakuru counties had in mind when they pledged to attract investors? We think otherwise. A chat with hundreds of clerics, policemen, nurses, doctors and counsellors would be a great eye-opener to the debasement our society has sunk to.
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