Written by Gitau wa Kung’u (profgitauwakungu@gmail.com)
For long, the Kenyan communities and media has been awash with news reporting gender-based violence and related crimes. These include men murdering cheating wives/fiancés, or married women murdering or paying assassins to murder their wealthy husbands, or men killing their whole nuclear families and committing suicide.
The jail cells are acrid with masses of productive young men sentenced over defilement convictions. Meanwhile, they leave escalating rates of teenage pregnancies and many children become mothers and mothers of aborted/miscarriage babies. Prostitution, rapes and sexual assaults among other grave immoral crimes are the order of the day.
I think many of these ethical degradations are a result of foreign, western socio-cultural influence over the African socio-cultural traditions. Amongst the influential factors, include systems of monogamy and permissive sex education protocols; over the traditional polygamy marriage system and stringent sex education and responsible sex behaviour protocols (like nguiko and kuhanda itimu in Agikuyu community).
According to 2019 Kenyan Population and Housing Census, the number of males was 23, 548.1’ (000). Females were 24,014.7’ (000). The sex ratio (number of males per 100 females) stood at 98.1.
Supposing that all the population are likely to get married in monogamous marriage, many women will be unmarried. There are many monogamous marriages in Kenya than polygamous marriages.
Still, a considerable male population is either in jail, direly affected by alcohol, drug and substance abuse or suffering mental issues compared to the population of women in similar cases. Thus, the ratio of males potential of marrying is less than the number of viable women fit for marriage. More men than women die earlier into marriage thus, there are more widows than widowers.
The largest population in Kenya subscribes to the Christianity. The church insisting on the doctrine of monogamy (marriage between two individuals)is hence, contributing to increased chances of the population engaging in sexual immorality even as the preachers preach against sexual sins like adultery, fornication etc. How is this so?
The population of sexually viable individuals is behemoth. Sex is also a very important need in the growth and mature physiological development of the humans. In the presumption that every Christian member marries, excluding the celibates and the church continues to insist on monogamy, will it not be creating more chances of even the married faithfuls engaging in adultery with the women left unmarried?
Some jealous Christian wives and husbands often murder or pay assassins to kill their cheating partners. Others cheat to revenge. Others still resort to acquire potions from Daktari Kutoka Kitui, Tanzania and other waganga to control their spouses. Others taunt hakuna bwana ya mtu etc.
The traditional Agikuyu community for example, was well conversant with human sexuality. The community therefore had three institutions that guarded the community against such insanity as killing over love and sex matters, premarital pregnancies causing single motherhood, sexual defilement of minors and generally irresponsible sexual behaviour like prostitution.
These included nguiko and kuhanda itimu. The institution of nguiko was what the English calls romance. In nguiko, the young people (from adolescents to young adults)were allowed to engage in romantic relationships with nguiko partners of own choice but well known to the parents. The young ladies and gentlemen were allowed to have a night together where they would engage in touching e.g. by rubbing the breasts and chests and talking about sex until they drifted off to sleep without having sex.
If a girl lost herself and gave in to sex, the grandmother would know since she would check if the girl’s inner garment protecting her sex had been untied the next morning after a night out in nguiko. Virginity was highly valued. A girl who lost her virginity before marriage would become the village’s laughing stock. She would be stigmatised.
Thus, through nguiko, the community was able to contain the young people’s sexual tension, prevent teenage pregnancies illegitimate children, maintain virginity until marriage and thus maintain sexual purity while enhancing full social, and physiological development.
Today, adolescents are hiding and engaging in fornication and are introduced to parenthood while immature.
There are more unsafe than safe abortions undertaken and miscarriages happen. Many healthy young men are in jail over defilement convictions. Few maintain virginity to marriage. Many, especially those in institutions of higher learning are getting entangled into love-triangle violence including suicides due to amongst the reasons, inefficient and perverted knowledge in sex education.
Among married individuals, a man was allowed to marry more than one wife on condition that he could love, provide for and take care of both families equitably.
Still, the kuhanda itimu institution existed amongst the married people.
This involved a man and so a woman being allowed to sleep with another person’s wife or husband. However, the man had to pierce the ground outside the hut of the homeowner’s wife. That signified that the man would protect the family and spend the night with the wife. The husband would then walk away and probably do the same at the other man’s home or elsewhere. Then, there was no dangerous diseases like HIV/AIDs.
The institution was abolished together with nguiko and ruled primitive after Christianity started getting roots and the imperialist advanced colonial government.
But now that many are so civilised and Christianised, why is there more immorality than before imperialism?
The African church needs to read, interpret and preach the word in the light of the African not European context if indeed the gospel is to save Africa.
Even Paul allowed gentiles not to be forced to be circumcised in order for them to be baptised and admitted into the church.
How does the African church accept European doctrines that destroy the African rather than strengthen African cultures and traditions, or the governments thrive imperialist administration ideologies and we expect to grow socioeconomically to first world that depend on our continent for most of their industries’ raw materials?
