THE BOYCHILD'S AWAY WALK

 THE BOYCHILD'S AWAY WALK

We talked of GBV two weeks ago and the statistics were crazy that 4 out of 10 adult women have experienced violence in their adulthood. One reader though urged us to also look at the flipside of the coin and according to her, she thought that "the sad part is ,when it is a man violated ,we do not take it seriously, but when it's a lady,we even demonstrate ". Her advice to ladies was that, " If you cannot love them as it should or forgive them, please let them go in peace.The same society that will judge you for walking away is the same society that will talk when you die of depression. Always choose you, self-love first." I found the ideas expressed here very reasonable especially in defence to the boy child, who finds himself forgotten, so many times. If the trends continue as it is, then the statistics could tilt against the men so that more men as compared to women may end up as victims of GBV. This is so true because as women have become stronger over the years as a result of affirmative action campaigns, men have become weaker and not being able to stand against more powerful women. The evidence is all around us. Just to mention, a storyline has been doing rounds that women are filling nightclubs and men increasingly becoming a no-show in the entertaiment spots once ruled by men. In the past, men left their wives at home for fun-nights but now, it looks like tables have turned because, wives are leaving husbands home for the night-outs. Reasons are many but mainly, women are increasingly developing deeper pockets than men. They can afford it. They are doing better in business and a look at the corporate world tells you that women are more in the driving seats of successful businesses today, more as in the past. Physically also, women seem to be getting the guts to stand up to many physical threats from men. Ofcourse, when a man loses the financial muscle, he also tends to lose the physical muscle as well. I draw my attention to a recent case in Nairobi where a woman stood infront of a Matatu to run a confrontational argument with the driver. When temperatures reached boiling point, she took a huge stone and smashed the Matatu's wind screen. It is not very clear what caused the confrontation but the power she displayed amazed me big. If this is how powerful women have become, then every boychild needs a self assessment of their relationships and if he is continuously pressed to a corner with no voice and with occassions of physical violence, then the boychild should just walk away....... just as they dissappeared from the Nightclubs. Maybe that is the only way to make peace and be a child of God just as Matthew 5:9 says, 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.' 

@Stephen Mungai