One obvious consequence of a neglected boy is diminishing of marriage chances.
About 45 years ago, a Trinidad and Tobago musician sang about a coming world of women rule. He sung, “They say women will rule, this world in time to come, to see a woman ruling her husband.
Saying you got to wash, don't forget to cook, or see about the children and all, because she has to go and play cricket and football. Imagine, men washing the dishes, women going to work. Then your wife come home drunk on the pay day."
He added: "Women will be coastal guards, police and soldiers, big bus drivers labourers. Well, this is now the modern reality. But the stark reality of the winners of this "battle of sexes" was brought home by some innocuous but arevealing report brought to my attention.
Ministry of Health in collaboration with the county IT department installed a Health Management System commonly known as "Afya.ke" at the Murang’a County Referral hospital, making the entire patient journey paperless. Having been installed in August 2023, the system has now started generating reports, which essentially are collated and interpreted data for easier decision making.
One unfortunate set of data is "the death report” Basically the report answers the following questions, since August 2023 up to January 2024, how many persons have died at the hospital monthly and in total? What are the main causes of deaths? What is the gender?
Let's concentrate on the last issue since it concerns this topic: Gender distribution of deceased persons.
The data revealed month after month men are dying twice the rate of women notwithstanding women get admitted to the hospital at a greater rate.
If for instance 10 people died , seven will be men and three women on average.
This is not really a Murang’a issue. Nationally, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics affirm life expectancy of women in Kenya is 68 years whereas that of men is 64 years. Connected to this was an audit done by National Government on the Murang’a County workforce. It revealed 63 per cent of workforce is female, though men hold forte at the top echelons.
Probably this holds true in national government and other counties workforce ratios.
In some sectors, it is a blow out in favour of women.
In nursing and teaching, the ratio of men to women is 20.80 respectively.
And these are the caring sectors where values for the next generation are being transmitted.
And probably this predominance of women in formal employment probably is true in private sector.
In law firms, for instance, anecdotal evidence suggests women occupy 70 per cent of all positions (secretaries, lawyers, cleaners, cooks, clerks). Probably that is the case in factories, supermarkets, clinics and pharmacies.
What about informal sector? Certain sections are purely in the hands of women, like market trading. Sectors that have macho traits excessive display of male characteristics) like transport and mining remain under male control. But increasingly women seem to be penetrating these sectors notwithstanding their inherent male bias.
This does not necessarily mean women rights and gender equality has been achieved. Issues of mistreatment of women including abuse of power and sexual harassment remain rampant. Probably if one does a sampling of properties registries (like shares or motor vehicle or companies or lands registries) men could beat women . But the practical economy, where legal ownership is not necessarily the issue but cash flow generation, women might have bested men already in Kenya.
But definitely other markers of virtue and morality show women way ahead. Women attend churches and school meetings at the ratio of 75 per cent when compared to men. Conversely, jails and bars are teeming with men. Women in jail will be too few (5.1 per cent of total prison population compared with men at 94.9 per cent as at 2022) and generally doing time for non- violent and petty crimes.
What about politics? There is agitation for more women representation in decisions making bodies like parliament. This is a good cause. But for all practical purposes, the men who occupy power make decisions that are subtly skewed in favour of women. Talk to any politician in private, they all know women have the strongest and most loyal voting bloc. They will not say it in public but they know where it matters. I have this on authority from no one else but Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua. When he was serving as Mathira MP, I visited him at his constituency. He had a huge group of women dancers in colourful regalia. He told me: "These are the people that matter in politics."
The essence of the above is to say in a nutshell women, for a variety of reasons, have silently manouvred a silent social and economic revolution in their favour. At least in large portions of Kenya.
Is this good or bad? It is good. It suggests feminine traits prosper in comparison with masculinity in settled societies. And since children are highly connected with their mothers, probably that might help cross generational progress. But there is one thing that needs to be checked: The plight of the boy child. A neglected boy is not good for society. That boy will have a heightened risk of going to jail or early death, as the above data suggests. In some societies, like in South America, neglect of male children is incentivising growth of criminal gangs.
One obvious consequence of a neglected boy is diminishing of marriage chances. That explains why younger women are dating older married men. The ratio of girls to boys is 50:50. But when girls lack "marriage material" among their peers, some rush to older men who possess resources that they require. The older men are spoilt for choice, the poor young men have no one to date. That creates resentment of the male youth towards the elderly monied males. That is a seed for social upheaval.
So, what's the solution? Concurrent with efforts being done to uplift the women, similar work should be done to held the boy child.
- Dr Irungu Kangata is the Murang’a County Governor; Email: [email protected]
