NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 30-Raising a child, more so a teenager, in the 21st century is fast becoming a major headache for parents and community leaders in Kenya.
In the last few weeks, hundreds of teenagers have been arrested while consuming drugs and engaging in indecent sexual behaviour.
It is what experts say is a manifestation of how trends in popular culture and technology, might be introducing and exposing youth to illegal and harmful activities.
The story of a teenage Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) candidate awaiting mental assessment, before appearing in court to face murder charges, reads like a paragraph lifted from a fiction story.
The 14-year-old from Kamuyu area in Machakos County is accused of strangling to death a 15-year-old girl she considered a rival in a suspected love triangle incident.
According to Josephine Kyundi a parent and teacher, “the recent reports of child misconduct is a worrying factor especially now that they are at home and they have a lot of time on gadgets that allow them to engage in dark world online activities.”
The incident in Machakos comes at a time police are investigating separate cases involving at least 242 minors arrested in the last week alone, some of whom are said to have been engaging in ‘sex orgies.’
“I’m urging all religious leaders to work harder to ensure that we guide our children in the right direction before we lose them to online predators who are influencing their behaviour,” Nzuki Kituva, a church leader said.
But there are many that believe all is not lost.
Mentoring The Youth
Shahidi News met Doreen Nkirote, a social worker, inside a public hall in Kayole, seeking to know what she is doing to reverse the trend in the area.
Nkirote leads a mentorship session involving teenage girls.
“Most of these things come about because of stress and depression,” she says.
“I have organized this forum to provide a platform for these girls to speak out. Unlike in the past, raising a child is no longer a community responsibility.”
She had identified Kayole for the mentorship programme due to its high prevalence rate of drug abuse.
“Gone are the days when parenting was strict and a community affair. In the era of advanced technology and social media, keeping up is a tall order for parents,” she says.
A study by Kaspersky lab – a multinational cybersecurity and anti-virus provider domiciled in Moscow, Russia – shows that about 70% percent of parents don’t know their children’s activities on social media.
“The same study also revealed that almost half of the children online, hide what they are doing from their parents. Those glaring statistics tell of a gap,” says Nelson Muhia, a research officer, at the African population and health research centre.
As technology becomes more complicated and sophisticated, so does the danger that lurks behind these gadgets, experts have pointed out.
And for parents, experts also believe that it is important for them to keep up with technology.
“These gadgets have parental controls. We parents, first and foremost have to know them, we also have to apply them,” says Sheikh Abdulatif Sheikh, a counselor at a family center based at the Jamia mosque in Nairobi.
“We also need to give them psychological ‘vaccinations’ so that when they are exposed to such information, they can be able to repel it.”
Kenya has a 90 percent mobile phone subscription, impressive statistics, now being exploited by online predators.
Global Online Nightmare
Globally it is estimated, there are 750,000 online predators according to Child protection expert at Unicef Kenya, Catherine Kimotho.
“These are people looking to engage children, and exploit them online, on all manner of things, especially for sexual exploitation,” she says.
According to the cybercrime unit, between October 2019 and October 2020, there were over 8,000 such cases.
Some have an element of child abuse and exploitation.
“But there are those they call severe cases, they have filtered that, and there are about 560 reported cases for Kenya,” Kamotho said.
DCI Child Protection Unit officer Lawrence Okoth says that the cases have surged over the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We realise the predators online, either they send cookies so that when the children like or click onto them, they are automatically connected to them. It is there that they get their details,” the detective said.
The 2019 global threat assessment shows that online child offenders seek new ways of sharing harmful content “disguised as websites.”
DCI is actively investigating at least 500 cases, some of which may have originated from outside the country.
“We are collaborating with a US organization called NECMEC. When they get reports from various social media pages, we get the Kenya statistics through their database retrieved from that channel,” detective Okoth said.
“We have realised there is an upsurge of cases. There are moments we get about 300 cases in a month.”
The investigating directorate also in pursuit of online groups believed to have been behind the latest cases of teenagers’ disappearances.
Also Read:
Mystery of missing teenagers not unravelled but detectives say 3 have been found
Online cartel luring girls to house parties, orgies exposed
Police arrest 21 teens partying in a bar
Woman who hosted 44 teens for an orgy session to remain in custody for a week
“Don’t share inappropriate pictures online. Even if you know the person receiving the picture is someone you trust, at some point, it can leak to another person and get into the wrong hands,” Okoth cautioned.
Nelson Muhia, a researcher says “We need to talk to our children about appropriate usage of social media.
“One of the things that people don’t know is that with these pictures and videos, and texts that we send, most of the time they become part of our digital footprint for life and they will come to haunt us.”
Religious institutions are equally challenged to take interest in technology, so that they too, can play the role of mentorship.
“The religious leader has to have the capacity himself or herself first. You can’t give what you don’t have,” says Sheikh Abdullatif.
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