Economic case of defilement is mere juvenile prostitution

'Defilement commercialised’ is a thorn in the flesh of good morals. The story, carried out in the Daily Monitor, 27th June, shows how our society is becoming a man eat offspring society. It’s an abuse of fundamental human rights, in this case, the rights of the girl child being used as a commodity of promiscuity for money. Why should guardians or whatever parties involved, use their young girls as investment in juvenile prostitution? Is it a failure on the part of the laws, law enforcers, the guardians of such innocent victims or lack of laws to curb this trend once and for all?

Definitely, this is a failure, first on the part of the guardians who would rather get cash out of the defiler other than take the matter beyond their irrational heads. Such guardians have lost both morals and concern for their children. They have adorned the garb of greed and ignorance. However greedy or hungry a dog is, it cannot feast on its offspring. But, in the face of a civilised society, defilers are getting away with it. The defiled remain in the hands of fate, nursing their trauma and demoralised innocence. In most cases, they live which such trauma into their adulthood and this affects their relationship with the opposite gender.

For defilement to take on such a commercialised course, the guardians and the defilers, just like entrepreneurs, take risks and seem to engage in healthy business. They bury their heads in the sand to the penalty that defilement carries, ‘sentence to death’ verses the lucrative part of defilement: some cash to shove the defiler into freedom. The defiler gets away with it regardless the number of minors he defiles.

It might be the case of morals becoming so cheap that they can be sleazed with a little money.

Some of the legislatures’ argument on enabling easier conditions for bail to decongest overcrowded courts and prison systems is irrational. It is merely used as a scapegoat to condone ‘commercialisation of defilement.’ Such escapist approaches in dealing with the issue account for the acceleration in defilement and rape cases reported. Any sound minded person cannot even give this consideration a thought other than dismissing it for sadism. If not, just like the law on adultery which was scrapped, the law on defilement might also be headed for the same fate.

Stiffer penalties should be enforced and executed by the courts of law. However big the number of defilers is, they all need to face true justice that reflects their offences. In any case, there is big enough land for construction of prisons to accommodate the defilers. But, if rational heads together with the laws are buried in the sand, defilement and rape cases will continue to thrive. It will even be economically than criminally sounding and viable.

Joshua Masinde