Performance of Religious Parents in Providing Sexual-related Information to their Children: The case of Thika West Sub-County, Kiambu County, Kenya

The purpose of this study was to find out how Kenyan Religious parents perform in providing sexual-related information to their children. A survey, involving 322 secondary school students in Kiambu County, Kenya was carried out, on five basic sexual-related questions. The students responses on their source of sexual related information was cross tabulated with the demographic information of parents religious denominations. The respondents were asked from which source they learnt names of sexual organs in mother tongue where only 9.6% learnt from parents, 2.8% from religious sources, 6.8% from the school curriculum, 6.8% from the media,26.7% through self-discovery and 47.2% from the peer group. Out of those 9.6%, 1.9% were Catholics, 1.2% were Muslims, 3.1% Pentecostals, and 3.4 Protestants. The second question was the respondents’ source of information about how babies are made, and only 9% and 2.2% responded on parents and religious sources consecutively. The rest 61.5% cited school curriculum, 11.2% self-discovery, 10.9% peer group, and 5.3 % media. Out of the 9% parents, 3.1% were Catholics, 3.1% Protestants, 1.6% Pentecostals, 0.9% Muslims and 0.3% SDAs. The third question was respondents’ source of information about wet dreams where only 2.8% named parents and 3.1% religious sources. The other55% learnt through school curriculum, peer group 22%, self-discovery 14%, and media 3.1%. Out of the 2.8% parents, 0.6 Catholics, 0.9% Protestants, 0.9 Pentecostals and 0.3, Muslims. The fourth question on sources of information about menstruation showed the school curriculum rank highest 56.8%, self-discovery 16.5%, peer group 9%, parents 8.1%, media 6.2% and religious sources 3.4%. Out of the 8.1% parents, 3.4% were Protestants, 2.8 % Catholics, 1.2%Pentecostals and 0.6% Muslims. The fifth question was on the source that calls for abstinence. As expected, Religious leaders led with 35.4%, the school 21.7%, parents 20%, self-10.6%,with media among the lowest at 6.8% and peer 4.6%. Out of the 20% parents 8.7% were Protestants, 7.8% Catholics, 2.8% Pentecostals and 1.6% Muslims. The findings led to the conclusion that although the parents supported by their religious faiths have all the primary rights to inform provide sexual-related information to their children, very little if any is provided. School curriculum provides only what is allowed and it is evident that students continue to source for what they lack from alternative sources like media and peers. It is also clear that media and peer are not encouraging abstention. The study recommends that stakeholder be involved in developing a comprehensive sexuality education program and incorporate it the school’s curriculum for teachers to handle. Failure to do so leaves the youth vulnerable to negative consequences of sexual behavior that hampers self-development and educational goals of the society.