But, for the other side of the coin, students whose parents can't afford all the luxuries of sending them to good schools, then they usually begin cursing the days they were born. For them, it is that time of the year they have to endure a lot of problems.  The agony of waking up early in the morning, preparing for an inevitable battle with kondas so that they can see their way to the classroom, is something not only disheartening for the students but that which will force them to have a negative attitude towards school.

 

As if that is not enough, they have no choice but to go to school in old uniforms with their shoes leaving a lot to be desired. Dear reader, if you know what I am writing about then you will agree with me that it will be a sorry state of affairs for such students. Who can blame them for disliking school, taking into consideration that their parents are struggling to force ends meet. With the January disease taking its toll on many families through out the country after they spent a lot of money during the recent festive seasons, for them shape up with the expectations of the society, students are in most cases left to suffer the consequences.

 

Students in this country face a lot of problems and difficulties to such an extent that they are left without an option but to seek solace in other things that contradict with their endevour to get educated and become respectable people in life. It is a fact that society has made it part and parcel of our lives that education is key to humanity's success. 

 

It is against this background that highly educated people are respected more than those who are not. And, this has plunged a lot of people into poverty because what they have been conditioned to do is to get educated and have a good paying job. This has been blamed for failure by many people to succeed in life as they usually spend the rest of their lives working for some companies while in actual fact they have the potential to establish their own projects. 

 

When it comes to education, we discover that the road to success in this country is bumpy and potholed.  With all these problems, many girls fall by the wayside as they end up falling pregnant as they try to get that which their parents cannot afford to give them.  So many promising lives have in the past and as we speak continue being cut short since once one falls pregnant then that will be the end of it as she is expelled from school.

 

When it comes to boys, some of them find solace in drugs. They form dangerous gangs and indulge not only in drug abuse but trading and sometimes trafficking.  There has been a lot of concern over the growing incidences of deviance among the youths in this country and I blame the difficulties faced by these children in their bid to attain education. These difficulties make them turn their backs on schooling and divert their attention on other things.

 

Many factors have been blamed for deviance in this country and many people were quick to point accusing fingers at cultural invasion by those from developed nations. Media products such as films are said to have a magic bullet effect on those who watch them to such an extent that after watching these films, they don't remain the same. Dressing trends are also said to be affected by western programmes. Wearing of miniskirts and tight clothing that leaves very little to the imagination of the onlooker is believed to be a borrowed concept which our today's youths copy from films and other programmes. Surprisingly our elderly have joined in the fray as they also dress scantly in the name of fashion. It is not surprising to come across women who are fit to be grandmothers, parading our streets in provocative clothing.

 

I don't want to open a cane of worms since the issue of dressing is controversial as many people defend it in the name of women's rights. I know that there are a lot of factors causing deviance in this country and I was shocked one day when I was walking along one of the streets in the city centre when I came across a sleeve of a pornographic film. 

 

I didn't know that such films existed in our market until that day. It was obvious that someone had bought the DVD and threw away the sleeve, maybe to avoid the attention it brings with. The sleeve had pornographic pictures on it and these seemed to be some of the scenes in the DVD.

 

I was shocked because I didn't expect to come across such a thing so I quickly removed my eyes and pretended that I had not seen it. What could I have done when a lot of people of different ages and sex were passing by that area? What I am sure of is that many people saw the sleeve but pretended as if they had seen nothing because of embarrassment it would have cause if someone caught them gazing at those pictures.

 

Another day as I was walking in Kariakoo, I came across an elderly vendor who was selling DVD's of different movies. He was displaying his wares and when I looked at the movies from a distance, I discovered that among the DVDs was one on pornography. What bothered me was the age of the person selling the pornographic material; I just thought that he should have left it to the youths to do so.

 

These two incidences proved to me that pornographic material is being sold on our streets and it came as no surprise when the chief documentalist with the Women Information Centre, Wilfred Fuime, urged local authorities to enact by-laws prohibiting sale of pornographic magazines and videos.

 

He said that in order to save the community, such magazines and videos  should not be allowed into or kept at homes, libraries and schools blaming some parents for contributing to the misbehavior of their children by buying such material and keeping them at home. With such material being at their disposal, many children are left without a choice but to trade books for pornography.

 

Pornography destroys the future of our children as they tend to quickly adapt to deviant behaviour. This then remains a challenge to the powers that be to make sure that they leave no stone unturned when it comes to getting rid of pornographic materials from shops and streets where they are selling like hot cakes.

 

Parents on the other side should make sure that they don't expose their children to such materials. Let's protect our children by declaring war against pornography. God bless you