When new students get an admission letter to the university, joy pounds in their hearts. They yearn for the reporting date to enjoy the much-publicized campus life. Like students, parents are eager to see a bright future for their children. For many parents, unknown to them, there are more that happens behind the curtains of the hostel rooms.
For students who were in strict secondary schools or overproductive parents, the time has come to explore a lot more albeit non-academic related.
Many parents would not wish to read this, but campus hostel can be the devil's den. As the sun goes down, vibrant nightlife switches on. Many students, young, carefree and lusting for a blissful life set on to explore what they have been yearning for on campus.
Students in hostel indulge in sexual activity. They practice all 'laws' of intimacy to their satisfaction. These students do whatever comes to their minds. Sometimes they engage in groups sex. Exile is a common term among campus students. This is the time where students sharing a room are send away to allow one member to have sex.
"Hostel is hell. Students have sex just like food. Most ladies come to men hostel on Friday and left on Sunday. All this time is sex," Meshack Maritim of a University of Eldoret says.
Merryline, a second-year student at the university said, "I love hostel life. Of course, I get the freedom to do whatever I want, when I choose and with whoever I want."
Hostels are full of students of different characters. Some of this students spend their whole semester on a drinking spree. These students say it is much cheaper to buy alcohol and drinks at the hostel than to do in clubs. Bottles are thrown all over and the washrooms are full of alcohol vomits.
"I began to drink alcohol in my first year. All my roommates are addicts and due to peer pressure I too drunk," said Cheruiyot, a third-year student pursuing Economics.
"At night, some students engage in drugs. They stand on the balcony with cigarettes sticking between their lips and the whole alley reek on the smoke," adds the student.
The university installs WiFi for academics but does it serve the intended purposes? Students misuse WiFi to download songs which they use in playing the loud music in hostels.
"At night you cannot differentiate a club from a hostel. Students play loud irritatable music. These are romantic songs that can seduce a lady without uttering a word," confesses Edwin, a final year student.
Universities have tried to implement rules to counter the vice but students protests that their rights are being infringed. They say they are over 18 years, therefore they should be allowed to decide on what to do. They have developed their motto; 'we only live once, live well.'
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