By LUCY ORIANG’ Posted Thursday, November 5 2009 at 16:48
One quote sticks out in the debate on schoolgirl sex abuse. It belongs with the chairman of the national association of parents, Mr Musau Ndunda. He reportedly said, at a forum to debate the Teachers Service Commission report released this week, that the 12,000-plus pregnancies could be blamed on school trips, posting of unmarried men to girls’ schools and evening classes that run late.
He capped it all with the killer question: “Some male teachers even escort the girls to their homes after tuition. What then is expected?” I have waited in vain to hear from male teachers objecting to the idea that they are such weak-willed and sex-crazed creatures that they will drop their pants any time and any place — and that any female will do. But the day is not over yet, and the lines of communication remain open.
This argument poses a major problem. It sets the stage for a worldview that reduces men to creatures incapable of thinking above the belt. It also lets them off the hook. If that is the case, then all females must presume that they are under siege and proceed with caution in any encounter with the other side, assuming that all males are potential rapists behind the civilised veneer.
That may not necessarily be a bad idea, given the situation under discussion, and it will be important at some stage to look critically at how to equip girls and women with the skills and strategies to protect themselves from sex pests who will not keep their hands and other body parts to themselves.
Twelve thousand may be just the tip of the iceberg, after all. Given the stigma that girls and women who are abused have to live with, the reality could be more damning. Just recently, a local television station ran a story about a school where 55 girls or so had fallen pregnant in a year. No matter the enrolment, that is a number that should get right-thinking adults to sit up.
The Ndunda argument offers criminals the “temptation” defence that turns women into objects that should be grabbed just because they are there. All teachers are presumed to be above 18 — at which point Kenyan law presumes they are adults capable of making rational decisions and controlling their desires, for heaven’s sake.
It is unlikely that we will have a situation where our schools can be single-sex all the way from students to teachers and support staff, so where does that leave the education system?
WE REALLY MUST MOVE AWAY FROM these attempts to pathologise men and present them as universally hard-wired to be sex predators. Criminals must be held accountable for their actions without resort to tired arguments about what it means to be a man.
There should be no room for special pleading when we have laws to address these things. I have yet to hear any advocate argue that a client should get away with stealing a car because it was parked in plain view of passers-by, looking sexy and enticing. Lock up those who prey on children and throw away the keys. We have internalised this woman-as-temptress argument so solidly that it colours our attitude to every single case of sexual assault and exploitation in this country. The first line of questioning a survivor can expect is to do with what they did to deserve it.
They will look at the way you were dressed, where you were and what you were doing out at that time — even your looks may become a bone of contention, for all we know. Behind the statistics, there is a culture of impunity that dates beyond the days I was a little girl wondering bitterly why anyone should be made to read so many books. We saw older girls drop off at regular intervals, followed by whispers that they had caught a ball.
This latest survey, conducted jointly by the TSC and the Centre for Rights Education and Awareness proves that the sick guys will not stop playing hardball for one simple reason: They will not pay the price. The teachers involved in these scandalous goings-on are not victims of temptation. They have sex with the students in their care because they have no respect for women and girls — and because they will get away with it as the TSC stumbles through mind-boggling bureaucracy.
Behind these statistics are stories of skewed power relations and half-hearted attempts to deal with a problem that refuses to be wished away. Schoolgirl abuse and pregnancy is in effect an industry worthy of academic pursuit only, and massive volumes of papers have been written on the subject. Other countries have pushed the boundaries and managed to rein it in to some extent. But we wring our hands and advance excuses pretending to be legitimate arguments. What then is to be expected, indeed?
oriang.lucy@gmail.com
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