now I know you might all be wondering
what does a 12 year old boy know about
the boy child crisis I present the boy
child crisis in three different stories
which are also my personal experiences
first and foremost my thoughts about the
boy child go three years back when our
guidance and counseling teacher took all
girls to a separate room us being young
and nosey boys decided to eavesdrop on
the conversation most of it held on how
girls should not interact with boys
inappropriately the other half was about
adolescence and the like but as we
headed back to class we first felt
marginalized and left out and we started
asking ourselves questions why didn’t
the guidance and counseling teacher do
the same thing for us boys don’t we go
through these same physical and
emotional changes we have to stop the
assumption that the boy child knows the
way globally there has been an over
emphasis on girl child empowerment and
this is rapidly suffocating the boy
child because we are just as vulnerable
as the girl child most of the time I
hear my parents and grandparents discuss
how boys in our rural community have
become a social misfit I know you might
all be wondering which community do I
come from actually most of my ancestors
happen to come from near County
specifically or dire anyway moving on
with my story apparently these boys are
rarely sober and they spend the better
part of their day drinking and hanging
out their peers in shopping centers this
behavior in the community seems to have
trickled down from the fathers to their
sons as such their mothers and wives
have become the sole breadwinners of the
family
I happen to have also come across a few
articles in our local daily that suggest
a high percentage of men in the rural
part of central Kenya are now alcoholics
you see the girls see their hard-working
mother’s going to the shamba every day
therefore they know the only way to be
successful is by working hard they’re
hard working mothers are the girls role
models on the other hand the boys see
their fathers drunk and eating off the
sweat of their mothers some emulate this
from my young age because they have no
milk we got meat on them this then poses
the question who guides the boy child
looking at the trend in most Kenyan
homes today we see that our fathers are
so engrossed in their work they leave
the house quite early and come back very
late and when they have some spare time
during the weekend you will find them
going out for social activities with
their peers as such the upbringing of
children has been left to moms and
nannies this means that us boys develop
a closer relationship with our moms
because it is they who are there most of
the time in my observation I see that us
boys see our fathers as disciplinarians
because they are more keen on instilling
discipline rather than building up a
closer relationship
this means that society is left without
a male figure to mentor them and this
impacts us by having boys dropping out
of school high rates of drug and alcohol
abuse and sadly the high cases of young
boys looking for older women to support
them financially mine today was not to
castigate or undermined the efforts put
to impart the girl child no mine was a
plea rather a cry for the boy child who
seems forgotten
as I conclude but before I do so
remember what they say in chess there is
no question without an answer
I challenge governmental organizations
nongovernmental organizations because if
one um of the society does not work the
society at large cannot function thank
you
[Applause]
what does a 12 year old boy know about
the boy child crisis I present the boy
child crisis in three different stories
which are also my personal experiences
first and foremost my thoughts about the
boy child go three years back when our
guidance and counseling teacher took all
girls to a separate room us being young
and nosey boys decided to eavesdrop on
the conversation most of it held on how
girls should not interact with boys
inappropriately the other half was about
adolescence and the like but as we
headed back to class we first felt
marginalized and left out and we started
asking ourselves questions why didn’t
the guidance and counseling teacher do
the same thing for us boys don’t we go
through these same physical and
emotional changes we have to stop the
assumption that the boy child knows the
way globally there has been an over
emphasis on girl child empowerment and
this is rapidly suffocating the boy
child because we are just as vulnerable
as the girl child most of the time I
hear my parents and grandparents discuss
how boys in our rural community have
become a social misfit I know you might
all be wondering which community do I
come from actually most of my ancestors
happen to come from near County
specifically or dire anyway moving on
with my story apparently these boys are
rarely sober and they spend the better
part of their day drinking and hanging
out their peers in shopping centers this
behavior in the community seems to have
trickled down from the fathers to their
sons as such their mothers and wives
have become the sole breadwinners of the
family
I happen to have also come across a few
articles in our local daily that suggest
a high percentage of men in the rural
part of central Kenya are now alcoholics
you see the girls see their hard-working
mother’s going to the shamba every day
therefore they know the only way to be
successful is by working hard they’re
hard working mothers are the girls role
models on the other hand the boys see
their fathers drunk and eating off the
sweat of their mothers some emulate this
from my young age because they have no
milk we got meat on them this then poses
the question who guides the boy child
looking at the trend in most Kenyan
homes today we see that our fathers are
so engrossed in their work they leave
the house quite early and come back very
late and when they have some spare time
during the weekend you will find them
going out for social activities with
their peers as such the upbringing of
children has been left to moms and
nannies this means that us boys develop
a closer relationship with our moms
because it is they who are there most of
the time in my observation I see that us
boys see our fathers as disciplinarians
because they are more keen on instilling
discipline rather than building up a
closer relationship
this means that society is left without
a male figure to mentor them and this
impacts us by having boys dropping out
of school high rates of drug and alcohol
abuse and sadly the high cases of young
boys looking for older women to support
them financially mine today was not to
castigate or undermined the efforts put
to impart the girl child no mine was a
plea rather a cry for the boy child who
seems forgotten
as I conclude but before I do so
remember what they say in chess there is
no question without an answer
I challenge governmental organizations
nongovernmental organizations because if
one um of the society does not work the
society at large cannot function thank
you
[Applause]
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