The issue of single parents is a sensitive one. Still it is one that Kenyans must now face squarely before it is too late. The fact is that there is a huge percentage of single parents in the country today. Actually too huge.
Fact number two is that the manufacturer of the human race intended that both parents bring up a child. I realize that my thinking here will be viewed as very old fashioned by most. But research has shown that children brought up by both parents are much more disciplined and balanced in life than single parent children. In fact one friend of mine has been doing a study that seems to link the growth of single families in Kenya to the escalation of serious violent crime. Personally I do not need any research to link the two. It is common sense.
Interestingly many of these single parent families are to be found in Eastlands which everybody knows is the cradle and breeding ground of some of the most dangerous armed robbers and carjackers in Kenya today.
I am also aware that most single parents made the very brave decision to have the child in sharp contrast to the thousands every day who are murdering unborn children by aborting pregnancies.
Still it is time we linked the problem of single parenthood to escalating crime. The truth is that we will not fight crime successfully by only gunning down criminals, the time has come for us to dig deeper right to the root of the problem.
I dare say that life has a way of handing over justice to the culprits wherever they may choose to hide. The people most responsible for this single parenthood epidemic are cheating husbands and men and interestingly these are the people who get killed and maimed the most by carjackers.
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I blogged about this sometime back. World over statistics have shown that children brought up by single parents are more likely to grow up in poverty, perform poorly in school, take drugs and commit crimes.
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing is that the concept of fathers and family has been rendered moot by the new lifestyle choices Kenyan youth are taking up from Western cues. Britain are learning this via yobs and the black community in America which has the lowest marriage percentage among races in America, yet they churn out the most criminals have been experiencing this first hand. I have no idea if this situation is going to change in Kenya but if not we are in for a sad situation I tell you!
Chris,
ReplyDeleteI used to be a big advocate of the "shoot to kill" policy, having being carjacked in Nairobi some 3 years ago. I've gradually come to realise that the problem is much deeper than we want to accept.
Am with you when you talk about single parenthood as a great contributor to escalating crime levels. We definitely must do something about it, otherwise the resultant problems will come knocking right into our "safety zones".
Other contributary factors remain the prevalent hopelessness among the youth caused by unemployment. This is escalated every year through rural-urban migrations by high school graduates in search of scarce jobs in Nairobi .
Indeed, these are the challenges of hyper urbanisation that elected officials at City Hall should be grappling with in a 21st century Nairobi, rather than bickering about deals and throwing stools at each other.
I agree with you on the fact that a solution aside from the shoot to kill order should be enforced.....not sure what that solution is, but i do know that fror someone who's already chosen to take the gangster way of life, threatening him with force shall do little to deter him. Something has to be done to create avenues of escape for the youth contemplating gangsterhood.
ReplyDeleteI totally disagree with this:
"The people most responsible for this single parenthood epidemic are cheating husbands and men".
Dude...that's just a lie. Courting/katiaring is where the guy propositions the chick. The chick then accepts or declines...law of contracts.
For a husband to be a cheating husband, there has to be a willing extra woman. Otherwise it's known as rape. Either that or women are just foolish (oops!! did i just say that??).