Kenyans find alternative ways to break taboo about sex

Young mothers and women living with HIV are been taught to remain confident by not allowing the trauma of their condition crush their dreams.

A self help centre is lecturing the youth on the importance of abstinence and the need to use contraceptives should they face difficulties holding back their sexual urge.

“we talk about abstinence and if you cannot abstain, what do you do? Because you find, you talk about abstinence everyday and then they come back and tell you, no, teacher even though you talk about abstinence, I cannot abstain, I have a boyfriend I have to fulfil, so you just introduce the talk of the condoms and then the contraceptives, “ Rosemary Olale, chairperson of Tuinuke Self Help Group said.

There are mixed reactions to sex education in Kenya.

While some say it is useful to help reduce the rate of promiscuity and sexually transmitted diseases, others think it is improper to introduce sexual health education to teenagers.

A sexual health bill introduced in 2014 met with stiff resistance from legislators.

A technology startup accelerator, Nailab, is collaborating with the United Nations Population Fund, on the power of innovation on health education. To make this possible they have launched a competition dubbed, I AM.

“Ensuring that a young girl, a young man is able to understand what the nature of his or her body is, what are those questions which they find shy to ask their teachers or their parents? Technology can help us leap frog that,” Siddharth Chatterjee the representative of the United Nations Population Fund to Kenya said.

According to government statistics, 70 percent of Kenya’s population are under the age of 35.

Government records show that close to 29 000 Kenyan youths live with HIV while 13,000 others drop out of school each year as a result of unwanted pregnancies.