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{
    "id": 1268793,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1268793/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 120,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Moiben, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Phylis Bartoo",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "almost all of them have mobile phones. They access the internet and thus come across all manner of information on multiple issues, including pornography - which they are not supposed to be exposed to. Hon. Temporary Speaker, in order to navigate through this space, we should look at our school curriculum. At the moment, the curriculum is packed with a lot of content but little attention has been paid to sexuality. Adolescents have a lot of challenges. For example, some of them do not understand the growth process of their bodies. This information needs to be given to them. Some go through menstrual cycles without their knowledge. Some of them get involved in sexual activities at a very young age. Research has shown that 2 per cent of Kenyan children aged between 15 and 19 years have had sexual experience. Some end up getting pregnant and acquiring sexually transmitted diseases. Others have dropped out of school just because they did not have the advantage of getting information about their bodies. Our cultures have also changed. We no longer have situations where parents sit with their children to discuss cultural issues, including sex matters. How do we alleviate this? Students stay in school most of the time. We have those who go to school at five o’clock in the morning and return home very late in the evening. We also have those who are taken to boarding schools at a very tender age and remain in school throughout and only go home for very few days or weeks. How will such children get to know about some issues that affect their bodies? The only way through which we can intervene in this matter is by bringing on board a curriculum which teaches them in entirety how their body systems operate. We might think about going back to our cultures where children and parents sit and converse about these issues, but we have people who have migrated to urban areas and are detached from their cultures. Such people no longer understand, or are no longer connected to their traditions. Sometimes it is not easy for parents to sit with their children and discuss such matters, especially considering that some parents still look at it as taboo. Look at period shaming. It is still very difficult even for us to discuss menstruation of our girls publicly, or even for a girl to go to a supermarket and buy a sanitary pad, because in some cultures they feel it is embarrassing for girls because of their upbringing, self-esteem and many factors which surround the upbringing of a child. In as much as it might take time to include sex education in the school curriculum, I wish we could start the conversation in schools. We can have speakers sponsored by the Ministry of Education visiting schools to educate adolescents on matters of sexuality. In as much as we talk about pregnancies and other issues, HIV/AIDS is still a problem. In the past, it was seen as a disease that is only sexually transmitted. That conversation is still very prevalent in some communities of Kenya. It is not just a case of sexual transmission. We also have infected children who were born by infected parents."
}