The narrative that one ought to keep themselves until marriage to have sex is fast fading. In fact, it has been fading since in the last two generations. Culturally, there were different traditions that provided for indulgences for different rites of passage. Recently, I watched a documentary about abortions that were taking place in remotest places of the country resulting from pregnancy acquired through unconventional sexual experience i.e. rape or certain traditional practice where men sleep with girls to acquaint themselves with before marriage. The dignity of partaking in this now trivialized experience was guarded jealously. Most religions still portend that sex before marriage carries some consequences. However, in some cases they mean sex before marriage is limited to the person you are going to marry
How did we come to this? Well, let’s begin at home. Most Kenyan nuclear families live in decent houses (at least two bedroomed or a semblance of the same) with a live-in house help (mostly from ushago). Both parent are working and come home too tired to do anything but shower, change and watch TV. They will then tyrannically bark order at the house-help for a good part of night and morning before going to work. Some house-helps vent their frustration on the kids during the day forcing them to do imaginable “grown-up” stuff on them. There you have it. Pre-marital sex right before a child even know what it means, he knows how to do it; where to touch, where to stroke and how it feels.