Imagine a world where every person in a position of power over their bodies understood the fundamentals of how our real bodies work. This has been my dream for so long. I grew up questioning so many things about my body, and this is the same story most girls in Kenya grow up with, the uneven and limited standardization of information on sex education, from different sources available, including parents themselves, with little regard for female reproductive health, safe abortion, healthy relationships, and consent.
Sex is never a topic you will hear from your parents unless you are talking to your friends. Although it does sound revolutionary for someone to talk to their parents about sex, but that doesn't always happen because there exist different bottlenecks when it comes to perception and what sex education means. leaders who grow up with sex and relationships education would have an essential understanding of the ideas of affirmative consent, bodily autonomy, and even the need to make, influence, or champion such legislation.
With the growing digital technologies, it has been said that in today's world, more people own mobile phones than toothbrushes. As hilarious as this may sound, according to a report by Datareportal, as of January 2021, Kenya’s total population has 22.0 million active social media users, this represents a social media penetration rate of 40.6%.
What does this mean?
Well, social media has become an integral part of this modern society, providing a platform for people to connect and share information not only here in Kenya but across the globe. With so many people using mobile phones and mobile devices, it’s no surprise that young people are getting on board and utilizing this technology. As part of these lessons, if no barrier were when it comes to sharing sex education from reliable sources, young people would have learned that women and girls are humans and need to be equipped to be unruly and fully practice their fundamental health rights with no shame when they express normal human sexual desire.
Democratizing social-emotional benefits of sex and relationships education is the way to go. We all need to want a world in which we all see each other as co-equals worthy of respect despite our gender or any other diverse differences, to have the kinds of healthy relationships and connections that make us less vulnerable to extremist indoctrination, sexual violence, or even economic violence. That’s even more reason the rest of us should support this agenda and start changing the narrative online concerning sex education, why, and how we need to give it.
Recently, Health CS Susan Nakhumicha joined Governor Waiguru at the Girl Effect dinner in honor of Hollywood actress Salma Hayek. CS said the ministry will work with the relevant stakeholders to deliver standardized digital sexual reproductive health information with a focus on young people. I know that sex education programs must also address other ills, including contraception, HIV, STI testing and counseling, domestic violence, bullying, etc, these will be the positive shifts in the digital landscape, however, my question will remain; Will we see a move towards a focus on parents and children talking to each other about sexuality?