Over-population: Of course, in combination with other issues but the issue is NOT the pedophiles but the ‘availability’..

BTW, high/large populations are not synonymous with over-population… 1,000,000 in vast NE Kenya might be over-populated compared to 1,000,000 in much smaller but fertile Central Kenya…

Also, it seems that prostitution & child prostitution is accepted & abetted at Kenya’s coast. After all who except the locals are the pimps, prostitutes among others in the supply chain?

I don’t know where you are but I know for sure paedophiles in the UK are offered some kind of medical intervention.

If the above statement is correct why do they not treat the men and women in prison for this condition?

As I understand it, this particular man was abused by his mother before he became 5. So it seems that it is something that happened to him beofre he did it to others. In that case it should be easy to forgive it and move on, however his children are not able to do that and are just keeping in tou=ch with the courts so that they are the first to know when he dies. On that day they say they will be free. However they now have kids and are leaving the kids exposed to the the wrong people. Social services just make the problem worse. Family vaules is aniother way of saying state control.

I think overpopulation on its own cannot explain it. It would have to be overpopulation and something else – such as economic sabotage and mismanagement.

The reason I say this is because there are some countries with a very high population and they are able to provide for their people e.g. Japan & UK. On the other hand, there are some countries with very low population but the people are wallowing in poverty despite those contries’ riches e.g. Sierra Leone & Guinea Conakry.

There is also the other dimension which KE alluded to; which is that paedophilia may be a medical condition. So no matter how rich the country is, the problem will still manifest itself.

It is only being highlighted now in Kenya because there is a worldwide spotlight on it – especially in South East Asia where governments have started prosecuting westerners for it.

However, in South Asian such as India and Bangladesh, it is still a huge huge problem which is largely acknowledged or even tacitly accepted.

This is especially in India where there is such a huge population of poverty stricken people.

The other aspect of the Kenyan problem is that bizarrely, majority of the people who patronise child prostitutes are locals i.e. Africans, Asians and Arabs. This is something the press has not highlighted. I do not understand why.

Lucy Oriang mentions a woman with 10 kids!
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/O…..index.html

How the heck will they escape the cycle of poverty?

Even barack obama’s senior had so many kids (4 wives…) that the rest (except BO who was raised by his mother & maternal grandma) were probably caught up in the cycle of poverty…

It will not go away any time soon.

Poverty is the main cause of the problem.

Even in Kenya, today, we have these old geezers marrying (& those are just the tip of the iceberg) young girls…

Morality has always been relative…

I don’t think this piece is encouraging pedophillia at all — at least, that’s not the purpose of the piece (either here or by the author in the NYT). I think the central purpose is to highlight a terrible problem that is occurring at the coast and to highlight how having a corrupt government can ruin a societies moral obligations to it’s children.

For me, this article just defines why the Kibaki government is failing on so many fronts and I believe it’s because of kibaki’s refusal (at the beginning of his term) to bring about genuine reforms in the country, which would have been based on the rule of law. Kibaki did have a chance to define what kind of country he wanted to leave behind (even if he didn’t like Raila & I don’t like him myself — he still could have ensured the countries laws were being adhered to by all people (including his ministers).

The rule of law defines a societies moral obligations to it’s people because it is the only avenue, which can bring about a sense of fairness and justice for everyone.

And you can be a dictator and STILL instill this respect for the rule of law within your country.

btw — I’m very sorry to hear about your nieces and/or nephews. 10 years is not enough time for that kind of crime, especially because there is no cure for this sickness.

CT:
Yes, there is pedophilia in the developed world, but if the law catches up with you, you will be arrested and imprisoned. This is the difference — the society will not tolerate it & neither will the government. They have social service agencies that work to remove children from abusive homes, provide free legal services to them, etc, etc….

I don’t think it’s over population. I mean, when my parents were growing up, everyone around them had 10 or 11 children and cases of pedophilia were unheard of then because there was still a sense of community.

I think Kenya has had a difficult time modernizing. From the time of independence, corruption sipped into our form of governance and it created an unequal society. A society where a few benefited from ill gotten wealth, but one that left masses of people on the fringes.

Believing that jobs exist in the city (where the government agencies are housed) these masses leave their rural villages (where they had some semblance of community) and wind up in the vast slums that surround Nairobi. However, these slum dwellings come with views — views of mansions and mercedes benz’s above them. Initially, they are filled with hope & incorrectly believe that they too will one day end up in those mansions. However, after years of toiling, they begin to realize that the game is rigged. It’s not hard work that gets you to the mansions. It’s theft and corruption. Frustrated by their inability to make it, they drown their destroyed dreams in alcohol and drugs. Many also turn to crime — and when this breakdown spreads to enough young people within that society, a countries sense of identity is then destroyed.

This is the failure of Africa’s political leadership — it has destroyed the moral fiber of it’s societies and in the process, it has drowned the dreams of it’s young people.

**
This is why I don’t particularly admire kalonzo musyoka. He’s a man who claims to be a born again christian, but seems to exhibit no sense of passion about this break down of the country’s moral fiber.