Single Kenyan Moms Blamed For Children's Behavior: Not Poverty, Polygamy, Gender-Based Violence or Untrained Teachers

During Covid-19 lockdown in Kenya the incidents of gender-based violence grew out of control. Hundreds of Kenyans ended up on the streets, many with their children to escape violence in their homes. So much so that BBC filmed the famed documentary in Kenya about the high rising incidents of gender violence.

Fast forward 2022 the African Union is once again trying to combat gender-based violence, something that it has tried to stop over the years around the continent again and again.

Then back in November of 2020. In 2021 the African Men's Conference tried to focus on 'Positive Masculinity' without mentioning the toxic home life that children growing up in polygamist households have to deal with. Or in homes where father's have left mother's to single handedly raise their children. Focus is rarely on men having several women in their lives, even the media blames women for being unwed not men.

Is single motherhood a recipe for disaster?

On Madaraka Day, President Kenyatta lamented that the rise of single parenthood posed a danger to the country. The President’s concern is based on normativity–that there are certain desirable and acceptable standards to define human life. A family is conventionally defined as a unit with at least two parents (male and female) and offspring. He said 38.2 per cent of families were headed by a single parent. This figure is slightly higher than in 1999, when the proportion of female-headed households was 37 per cent. The 2021 economic survey indicates that between 2016 and 2020, “single women accounted for 12.3 per cent of registered births.”

The President’s concern is based on normativity–that there are certain desirable and acceptable standards to define human life. A family is conventionally defined as a unit with at least two parents (male and female) and offspring. This derives from gender division of labour and the fact that human life arises from the union of male and female gametes. Single parenthood defies this convention.

Source: Nations News Kenya

The fact that Kenyatta changed the Marriage Act of 2014 allowing men to take as many wives as possible without the knowledge of consent of the first wives means nothing to him. Many women don't want to share their husbands, live in poverty or raise their children in homes with multiple children by several other women. This is fact is something that Uhuru Kenyatta and many males in Kenya ignore and overlook.

According to several studies the African practicing polygamy lives in the lowest poverty on the continent, especially in Kenya. In the year 2022 there is no reason why a country claiming to be Christian should still be practicing such an outdated practice.

People in polygamous marriages are generally poor compared to those in monogamous relationships. The study by Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) indicates that poverty is 42.8 per cent among polygamous marriages compared to 27.2 per cent among those in monogamous unions nationwide.

Source: Standard Media

The Connection Between Marriage and Poverty in Kenya

As drought, locust and famine add economic pressures to already struggling Kenyan families, many have no other economic option than to marry off their daughters to accept doweries. The United Nations Population Fund has concluded that “globally, dowry practices are exacerbated in times of crisis and displacement, such as drought, and contribute to higher prevalence of child marriage.” When parents pull their daughters from school, their daughters lose the opportunity to learn life-changing skills that will allow them to rise out of poverty. After marriage, families expect girls and women to promptly begin having children, keeping them boxed within the traditional gender roles.

While decreasing in popularity, polygamous marriage provides another connection between marriage and poverty in Kenya. Many polygamous men cannot financially sustain multiple marriages, pushing some women and children deeper into poverty. Teresa Omondi-Adeitan, executive director of the Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya, told Reuters that “polygamy is the biggest contributor to poverty as most men who get into it cannot afford it — and it is the women and children who suffer most.” While monogamous households note a poverty rate of about 27%, households headed by a polygamous man note a poverty rate of 43%.

Source: Borgen Magazine

Especially when the results are so obvious for the country's wellbeing and growth. Several times over the last 5-10 years the behavior of Kenyan children has declined. With the highest rates of teenaged pregnancies on the continent and possibly in the world Kenyans are falling behind.

Education and Poorly Trained Teachers Using Corporal Punishment

In a Facebook thread a Kenyan teacher admitted that she didn't speak or know English yet she said she taught English at the high school level. When questioned about how she could be a teacher of English without knowing it, she blocked the author whom was the one questioning her. Unable to explain how she graduated from school with a teaching degree in English if she was unable to 'know and understand English.'

Caning was banned in schools in Kenya, yet many teachers still use corporal punishment, one teacher killed a young man in recent months.

Kenyan Boy Caned To Death In School

A 14 year old boy died shortly after being caned by his teacher

Caning (beating) children in school is legal in many African countries. Kenya however had outlawed the practice in 2010. In 2021 Fred Matiang’i (Minister of Education) said that caning should be reinstated within the educational system because Kenyan students were behaving badly.

Source: TB Obwoge Medium

A hungry child in a Kenyan school was beaten for stealing food.

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