The Kenya Boy Child Initiative has challenged the government to put measures in protecting boys who continue to be sidelined after all attention shifted to empowering girls.
Speaking in Nakuru during the Kenya Boy Child Walk, initiative chairman Sammy Karanja said the boy child has continued to suffer and is now forgotten. He warned that if the situation continues, the boy child will be marginalized in the society.
Karanja stressed that that empowering the girl child should not be done at the expense of the boy child.
He condemned the current methods used to admit students into public universities where boys must have higher cut off marks than girls. Karanja said this is unfair treatment in accessing higher education.
“This is abortion of justice for the boy child and this system should be scrapped off to allow equality,” Karanja added.
Karanja pointed out that the society is focusing more on the girl child which is rapidly suffocating the male child.
“The boy child is as vulnerable as the girl child. Due to society’s underestimation of the boy’s needs, they are now exposed to sexual assault and are suffering in silence,” Karanja said.
The Nakuru Human Rights Network executive director David Kuria said for solace, boys are turning to drug abuse and crime.
“Those are areas they can find consolation and therefore the society should embrace equality for both genders,” Kuria said.
The two activists said that intervention is crucial before the young male generation gets diminished.
“A child is a child. It is wrong to empower one sex at the expense of another. Do not let the boy child succumb because he is just as vulnerable as the girl child,” Karanja said.