Teen pregnancies: Mutua blames vulgar Kamba music
What you need to know:
- Dr Mutua said Mr Ben Mulwa, a lead consultant conducted a survey revealed that Kamba vernacular music normalised teenage sex, rape and objectification of women.
- Dr Mutua said Machakos County topped in vulgarity.
The Kenya Film Classification Board Chief Executive Officer Ezekiel Mutua has blamed the rising cases of teenage pregnancies on poverty, bad cultural practices and failed leadership.
Dr Mutua also cited the availability of pornographic content on the internet, vulgar secular music on radio, TV and public transport as major catalysts for teenage pregnancies.
About 4,000 girls were said to have got pregnant in Machakos County during the Covid-19 pandemic.
VULGAR MUSIC
Dr Mutua said content creators and producers must understand that in 20 years to come, the dirty content they produce or promote today shall be consumed by their own children because the internet never forgets.
In 2017, a survey by Kenya Film Classification Board revealed that effects of vulgar vernacular music on the youth captured this reality. Dr Mutua said Machakos County topped in vulgarity.
“Even music bands are sexualised, we are sitting on a time bomb as vulgar stage names are used in the presentation of local musicians," Dr Mutua said.
Dr Mutua said Mr Ben Mulwa, a lead consultant conducted a survey revealed that Kamba vernacular music normalised teenage sex, rape and objectification of women.
“We mobilised churches and political leaders to help stop the craze which was sweeping across the county like bush fire, we even appointed elders to discuss with the bands on changing their genres of music,” he added.
SEXUAL INNUENDO
Dr Mutua said: “Last year, we appointed Kamba vernacular music brand ambassador Toby Bisengo - a renowned music producer to lead the campaign on clean content and change the notion that content has to either be dirty or have sexual innuendo to sell.”
He said that most political leaders ignored their crusade and would hire the bands to perform the same dirty songs at their functions.
Dr Mutua blamed vernacular radio stations and public service vehicles for playing dirty music.
He said that there is a close relationship between dirty content and the rise in immorality among the youth and urged government agencies, political and church leaders to work together to address this problem.
Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha said pornographic sites should be banned in the country. He said that the sites are to blame for the cases of teenage pregnancies.
