The boy child and mental health

The advent of the female liberation movement and the resultant campaign to empower women has gained momentum over the last few years, to the exclusion of their male counterparts in many social endeavours. As a result, young boys in Kenya have been left out of programmes and their welfare has not been sufficiently mainstreamed. Many young men have low self-esteem and have lost the confidence and drive necessary for success (National Gender and Equality Commission, 2015). Recent trends in Kenyan society have led to increased perceptions that in the spirit of empowering women and girls, boys and men are being marginalised. Research carried out by the National Gender and Equality Commission established that the boy is lagging behind because there has been excessive focus in many instances on the girl child by the Government and Non-Governmental Organizations in terms of programmes and interventions to empower the girl child (National Gender and Equality Commission, 2015).
Adopted from the National Gender and Equality Commission 2015 report, their recommendations include;
· Affirmative action initiatives by government should be based on consideration of sex– disaggregated data to identify beneficiaries and differential impact on boys and girls;
· There should be regular reviews to find out whether it is the boy or girl who needs an intervention based on varying cultural, economic and regional considerations;
· The programmes and intervention that support empowering of women and girls must engage men and boys as well;
· Poverty reduction strategies should be focused on the needy, especially to ensure children are not the ones earning income for the parents. Such strategies should address parental capacity to retain children in school;
· Use of existing structures including “nyumba kumi” initiatives to monitor the boy child activities and ensure they are going to school;
· Strengthen enforcement of laws at the lowest levels and empowering chiefs and other law enforcers to monitor enrolment and retention in schools and to give regular reports;
· Enforce implementation of relevant laws and policies that protect the rights of the child and monitor to identify specific challenges likely to impact negatively on boys schooling and develop localised strategies to address them;
· Ensure the Cabinet Secretary for Education holds Head Teachers responsible for school dropouts as provided for in the Basic Education Act, 2013
· Strengthen Guidance and Counselling and teaching of life skills in schools; develop and implement specific programmes focused on enhancing boys schooling especially in areas most affected by boy drop-out;
· Work with communities, religious organizations and relevant Civil Society Organizations to strengthen the family unit as the right environment to nurture children; and
· Amend the Sexual Offenses Act to avoid apparent discrimination of the boy in instances of “consensual” sex by minors.