Increased femicide a generational problem crying out for solution

Naftali Njahi Kinuthia, the suspect in the hacking to death of Moi University sixth-year medicine student Ivy Wangechi, is a 28-year-old graduate of JKUAT.

Joseph “Jowie” Irungu, who is on trial for the murder of Monica Nyawira, is 28. Maxwell Omondi Ochieng, who allegedly fatally stabbed my cousin Edinal Nyainda 22 times in the left lung, was 35.

Casual labourer Bernard Martim, who reportedly slit the throat of Sharon Chepkoech after she jilted him, is 32.

I would have wished to enumerate all the beastly perpetrators of femicide in the country but allow me to directly digress to my point.

From the above, one can directly deduce that these male suspected killers are at the adrenalised age bracket of youth.

Then, a fundamental question arises: Is there a generational problem that has now decided to flashily rear its ugly head?

While we may not want to face the facts, it is increasingly becoming clear that young men in this country lack both mental and emotional grit to gladly face and accept being jilted, rejection and dejection.

We are in an era when young men think they are vehemently entitled to the desiderations of their physical, mental and emotional beings.

And since we are solely responsible for our decisions and actions, this points to a fluid upbringing of the men in the family and society.

Children are being raised by mothers and absentee fathers in the leafy suburbs.

Even in the streets, you will always bump into a woman and her children begging. I have personally never met a man and children enfeebled in the streets.

In this era, fathers spend their days at work and nights in the pubs. They don’t attend to their children, even when they are needed most.

Others only hit on women, impregnate them and run away, leaving their offspring susceptible to the harsh social and economic elements.

If a young man doesn’t have his father’s time and attention to express his intimate relationship problems for advice, he will seldom turn to his mother to pour out his heart and be told that being dumped, cheated on and rejected is a reality.

That is when a mentality of socially constructing women as sex objects that must accept or forcibly succumb to his coital needs starts building up.

The effect will manifest itself later, when he becomes overprotective, insecure, violent and a killer.

Even our education and school set-up must adjust to the apparent fact that relationships and illicit sexual indulgence are here with us.

Continuously being violent structurally, physically and emotionally to children ‘caught’ having a relationship is cultivating the art of violence in them too.

Instead of roughing up sexually loose cannons and creating the heart of rebellion in them, we must device other ways to deal with this menace.

Unless we look straight into the societal hand in moulding decisions of young men, we might never combat femicide.