Google just released a list of the most searched topics and people in Kenya for the last 15 years and interestingly, “How to Make Love”, “What is Love” and “How to Kiss” topped the list in the “How To Category”.

This comes in the background of discussions and debates around introducing age-appropriate Sexuality education in the country’s curriculum.

There are many things young people learn in our schools and families but unfortunately, sexuality education has never been part of these lessons for the majority of adolescents, who often end up learning from their peers and in the unfortunate cases of defilement, from their abusers.

There are also girls who start their menstruation without an idea of what periods are and even how to manage them.

The Need for Comprehensive Sexuality Education

Although Google’s report does not show the age or location of the searches, it’s unlikely that mature, sexually active adults would be scanning the net to find out “How to make love”, they would probably be searching for more advanced topics like new sex styles and contraceptives.

Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) is necessary to ensure healthy sexual and reproductive lives for adolescents and will go a long way in curbing the soaring teenage pregnancies in Kenya and also the high HIV infections among young people.

CSE is not about teaching young people how to have sex or where to get an abortion as the misconception is, but about providing accurate information on a range of age-appropriate topics; fostering knowledge, attitudes, values and skills to enable adolescents to develop positive views of their sexuality.

Presently, Education-sector policies have only focused on Sexual Infections and particularly HIV awareness and abstinence even as numerous studies continue to show that programs that exclusively promote abstinence, while withholding information about contraception, are not effective at improving adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health.

Young Kenyans Misinformed About Sex and Sexuality

A 2019 Reproductive Health study revealed that Sexuality Education Programs in Kenyan Schools Are Failing Students and are Short of International Standards.

According to the study, on sexuality education conducted in 78 secondary schools in Homa Bay, Mombasa and Nairobi counties by the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) in conjunction with the Guttmacher Institute, there was a “decided lack of understanding and awareness about sexuality, sexual and reproductive rights, consent and how to best protect oneself against sexually transmitted infection or unplanned pregnancy”,

The study found that nearly one in four secondary school students in the sampled three counties thought that “using a condom during sexual activity is a sign of mistrust while a third of female students and more than half of male students also said that when a girl says no to sex, more often than not, she really means yes. At the same time, nearly half of female and 70% of male students believed that “protected and consensual sex with someone you love is a good thing.”

“ While most teachers focus on abstinence as the best or only method to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, the reality is that a quarter of students—most of them aged 15–17—had already had sexual intercourse at least once, and thus needed the information and skills to do so safely,” The study said.

In today’s modern world where technology has a lot of influence, we cannot continue to bury our heads in the sand and continue to avoid or postpone the need to start having these “tough” and “uncomfortable” conversations with our adolescents otherwise they will keep consulting uncle google and they will always find the answers.