By Eric Wamanji
This week the cyberspace was flaming following the revelation of a debauchery revelry christened Project-X planned for the weekend in Nairobi’s Kileleshwa Estate. A torrent of condemnation, some witty, some funny, some bizarre inundated the blogosphere. It is the outrage that carried the day attracting law enforcers who avowed to ban the party.
Of course sex and drugs parties ala the Happy Valley’s aristocrats, cuts against the very grain and soul of the Kenyan value system. More so, the target audience, mostly teens, is a vulnerable group whose veins are on fire for any adventure – legal or illegal. But importantly, they carry the future of society.
But let’s not be too naïve. This is not the first time such parties have ever happened in this city and under the nose of parents, guardians and law enforcers. For instance house parties are a daily staple, and if you think those overnight escapades involve praying, fasting and atonement, then I pity your gullibility. And, if you thought those who go for camping while their time like Catholic celibates, then you are from Mars.
Even in the highly flaunted road trips, swig, smoke and unbridled sex are in plenty. It is such adult thing that captures the imagination of tots who also, well, naturally aspire to partake. Kwani?
Our society, especially the segment with some disposable income, is perverted. Drug abuse is a big issue. It has wrecked lives in the most unspeakable a manner. Casual sex too leads society on a downward spiral. I shudder to imagine the myriad malady that such an adventure would inspire, attendant pregnancies abortions and death.
The trouble with such an initiation is that sanctities and censors that come with sex and relationship will be ignored going forward. Sex becomes a casual enterprise and is a free-fall for all.
Interestingly, there is a strong correlation in success – academics, carrier or relationship, with the degree of self-constrain one has on matters of sex. The loose types hardly make it. Yet, here, we are, producing the loose-types at an industrial scale.
And by sheer outlaw of the party, ideally, we should not sit pretty because that has not solved the issue. What we should be interrogating with much rigor is to why is society’s younglings drawn to this kind of hair-raising escapades? From whence did the organisers draw their mettle to go public with what was clearly abominable and unlawful?
To understand what is ailing our society, it is worthy exploring the paradox of the rise of the mid-class and the collapse of moral pillars. Let us unpack the target group. This is clearly an upmarket teen from a mid-income to high mid-income family. Most likely leaving in an apartment rented or under mortgage, just cleared high school or in third or fourth year some are early in university. The kids grew up during the Kibaki boom years, and of course with the luxury of smart phones and Internet.
Lest we forget, during the Kibaki boom, the economy gained some meaningful momentum and spawned forth a new breed of mid-class in the city complete with disposable income. But this income meant that parents were on a rat-race with tight schedules hardly time for their tots. And so the kids were largely raised by their nannies. When mom and dad got home, kids were dead asleep.
Hold your breath. Most of these kids also grew during the golden age of prosperity gospel. In this period, the religious province concerned itself with commercial interest rather than imparting morals and values to society. And so, censors on pervasions like drugs and other conceivable immoralities were downplayed. Your morning radio shows became pornographic and so was the ubiquity of the music videos and movies.
In school, during this period, academics became a vicious rush for great grades, and teachers, did not even know the power of smartphones and the rapidly changing social structures and environment.
Obviously, you can see that Project X is a product of a cocktail of societal dynamics. It is a disease of the rich. That is why, folks, I can wager to the last of mine dime that a lad in Turkana or deep in Bissil, Kajiado County has not heard of this X-rated party. And there is way such a lad would have attended for the design does not fit his profile.
And why so? Simple, there is no network connection, leave alone smartphones in those Godforsaken and forgotten frontiers. These rural folks do not have the luxury of disposable income, and society there is largely conservative, and tots are still taught values. Most importantly, kids of the peasant are too busy supporting their kin to eke a living than to think of gory parties. Kids of the city are too idle and live in a utopian world instead.
The mid-class parent is an armature one. Has abandoned family responsibility to pursue wealth and Career, and to compensate this guilt, showers the brat with freedoms and money.
Indeed, raising kids in such a milieu is slippery. Parents must choose career, money or the brats they have brought forth. Otherwise, folks, the very perpetuity of the society is falling on the curse that is the sword of mid-class.
The writer is a media and communication advisor Wamanji@rococo.co.ke Twitter: @majis