Ezekiel Mutua blames ‘vulgar’ Kamba musicians for teen pregnancies
Moral police boss Ezekiel Mutua has attributed the high number of teenage pregnancies Machakos to Kamba music.
According to Dr Mutua, vernacular artistes who sing in vulgar language are squarely to blame.
He says the vernacular music is filled with dirty content that normalises teenage sex and objectifies women.
“The news about 4000 girls getting pregnant in Machakos County is shocking but not surprising. In 2017, a survey by KFCB on the effects of vulgar vernacular music on the youth captured this reality,” Dr Mutua said.
“Machakos County topped for vulgarity. Even the bands had sexualised stage names such as Katombi, Maima, Vuusya Ungu and such other profanity. The Kamba vernacular music normalised teenage sex, rape and objectification of women,” he added.
Clean the content
He claims efforts by the Kenya Film and Classification Board (KFCB) to clean the content, have, however, been discouraged by political leaders who continue to encourage the artistes by paying them to perform their dirty songs in public.
“We appointed last year, a Kamba vernacular music Brand Ambassador Toby Bisengo – a renowned Kamba music producer to lead the campaign on clean content to change the notion that content has to be dirty or have sexual innuendo to sell,” Dr Mutua explained.
“What has been discouraging is to see that most political leaders ignored our crusade and would hire these bands to perform the same dirty songs we had banned in their functions, thus making a mockery of our efforts.”
“At the height of our war with these bands in 2018, I attended the inauguration of Governor Alfred Mutua in Machakos and was shocked to find Maima performing the same dirty songs we had banned with mature men and women taking to the floor to enjoy dirty music that objectified women, promoted rape and teenage sex,” he added.
Dr Mutua says that the fight against teenage pregnancies requires collective efforts by government agencies and other stakeholders.
“There’s a co-relation between dirty content and morality among the youth. Education PS Belio Kipsang once captured this very well when supporting our campaign. We need concerted efforts to address this problem. Government agencies, political and church leaders must work together to address this problem,” Dr Mutua said.