Rasna Warah
7 September 2008
opinion
Nairobi — Recent revelations about pornography dens springing up all over the place and of films of women and children engaging in acts of "bestiality" (as one officer put it), should be cause for extreme alarm.
Reports indicate that the sale of graphic pornographic material has skyrocketed in recent years and that children are being lured into this evil trade by unscrupulous peddlers.
And the trade is not confined to any class either -- people living in slums and in upmarket Nairobi suburbs are not only consuming pornography in huge quantities, but are producing material that is so disgusting and vile in content, it makes one want to vomit.
One officer claims he saw one DVD showing a woman engaging in what appeared to be a sexual act with a dog!
If I recall correctly, pornography was banned in the Moi days, and technically, all the producers and consumers of pornographic material are engaging in illegal activities.
How did this menace find its way into Kenyan society and when did pornography become acceptable or legal?
Let us be clear here. I am not talking of nudity or erotica, which, depending on the circumstances, can have informational or aesthetic value.
For instance, medical students have to be exposed to nude bodies in order to perform their duties, and paintings and films often use sex or nudity to portray certain aesthetics or to convey certain emotions.
I am talking here of pornography, which is essentially a form of sexual exploitation of human beings for commercial purposes.
I am also talking of a horrific phenomenon called child pornography where adults, otherwise known as paedophiles, get a kick out of watching children perform sexual acts.
I am talking of a disease that is so perverse that many countries are mandated to issue warnings to people when a convicted paedophile moves into the neighbourhood. There are many who claim that viewing pornographic material is a right like any other.
In the US, for instance, the First Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and expression, is often invoked when questions about the legality of pornography arise.
Efforts to ban pornography in the US have been equated with "censorship" or are seen as a plot by ultra-religious conservatives to equate sex with sin.
But claiming that access to pornography is a right or a freedom, is not just obscuring the issue, but making a mockery of the notion of human rights.
Let us be very clear on another thing. Pornography is a form of exploitation. Women and children do not voluntarily choose to participate in pornography.
In most cases, they are coerced, either through circumstances such as poverty or to feed a drug habit, or because they are threatened with physical harm.
In many cases, including in Kenya, women and children are trafficked and sold to pornographers.
Often, the pornographic act that is being filmed or photographed involves rape, torture, beatings, and in the case of "snuff films" actual murder.
Children who end up as victims of pornography are often abducted by makers of paedophilia, and are forced to engage in acts that they do not even know are sexual.
In many cases, they are killed after the pornographer had done his evil deed or when they become too old to titillate sick paedophiles.
Viewing of pornography has been linked to anti-social behaviour in males, and to rape, although there is no conclusive evidence on this.
But we do know that pornography is a global multi-million dollar industry, whose peddlers, like drug dealers, will go to any length to fulfil the appetites of their customers.
In a way, we are all to blame for this vice. I am constantly amazed at how little we speak up when we see our women and children being abused on our streets or even in our homes.
It isn't unusual, for instance, to see street children being picked up by strangers in fancy cars, yet we shrug and look the other way instead of pursuing the paedophile or reporting his car to police.
We walk past newsstands showing women in various stages of undress and never wonder what impact this is having on impressionable boys, who may grow up thinking that all women are sex objects.
We ignore warning signs, like the fear on our children's faces, when "friendly" neighbours or relatives drop in.
We let the vice of pornography get out of hand, and now we are stuck with a problem that is so huge, it may take several years to reverse.
The Kenyan law is not clear on pornography, nor is there any legal provision to filter out pornography or paedophilia from cyberspace.
While there is no guarantee that stricter laws will eradicate pornography from our midst, the implementation of stricter laws may make pornographers think twice about using women's and children's bodies to make a quick profit.
Ms Warah is an editor with the UN. The views expressed here are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
