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February 22nd, 2009
Jeremiah Kiplangat writes that pornography is so popular at local university campuses it is now a way of life for many students
Patrick Keya* is a popular figure at the campus of one of Kenya’s oldest universities. He plies a thriving trade in every manner of pornographic materials.
His mainstay is, however, blue movies, and most of his customers are university students.
"I have made many great friends at the university and most are my customers," he boasts. "I supply them regularly."
The only wrinkle in Keya’s otherwise happy existence is that lately, he has been facing stiff competition from new entrants who have realised the stupendous profits to be had come from the latest growth industry.
Welcome to the subterranean world of university life, where pornography has become more of a lifestyle than a hobby. So lucrative is the business that at a certain public university, word has it that some students recently managed to produce a blue movie on campus that is all the rage.
Besides movies, it is said that campuses are awash with pornographic literature and nude or semi-nude pinups are common in many hostel rooms.
Strange craze
Rather than academic matters, much of the leisure time on many a campus is devoted to discussion of the latest blue movie available on the Web. Though conducted in low tones, such discussions attract large enthusiastic gatherings. Pinned on the walls of many men’s rooms are pictures of scantily dressed or nude women, the more valued if they are celebrities. Students’ mobile phones are a good reflection of this new fad. Many screen savers are pictures of nude men and women.
"In one men’s hostel I once found a room with the door wide open and inside, there was a computer with a blue movie showing," a student, Gilbert Nyancha*, recalls. "The people inside did not seem to care who looked in."
Alfred, another student, attests to this devil-may-care attitude. "A friend once left a phone in my room and when I looked, I met by the sight of a naked woman," he recalls.
Alfred got curious and this led him to search the Internet for similar pictures. The search led him on a journey of tantalising pornographic sites.
The Internet is playing a great part in feeding this appetite for porn among students. A cursory survey on campuses suggests that rather than surf the Net for the educational and other beneficial material, many students are obsessed with obscene sites.
To service the craze, cyber cafÈs are sprouting up around many campuses. The owners, however, refute claims that they have been drawn to students’ appetite for trash.
Appetite for trash
"We came here to provide Internet services and cannot keep track of whatever students search on the Web," says an attendant at a recently opened cyber cafÈ.
Some, however, openly encourage students and guide them to the sites with the sleaziest literature and movies.
"Many students come with such sites in mind and I always show them whatever is available," another attendant confesses. He, however, cautions against watching the movies on the premises and advises them to download them instead.
Students with Internet enabled mobile phones do not even need the services of a cyber cafe. They have direct access to obscene sites and all they have to do is download the literature and films they require onto their computers.
"I do not have to visit the cyber cafÈ anymore," Emmanuel Tarus* enthuses. "Look, I have just downloaded all this wonderful stuff into my computer using the phone."
He reveals that he has accessed more than 10 porn sites and is still searching for more.
He was introduced to the sites by a friend he had requested to direct him to a soccer site. As a bonus the friend added another website. Tarus only realised that he had been introduced to a porn site when he browsed later.
"After surfing I became very interested and since then I have craved for more sites like that," he says. "It is quite addictive."
Hannington, a fourth year student, does not see anything wrong with the blue movies. He considers them like any other romantic movies and will even invite friends to his room to watch them.
"I spend my leisure time watching such movies. I find very satisfying and see nothing odd about them," he says.
Put into practice
Tarus too does not consider blue movies harmful so long as one does not put what is watched into practice. He says they are just erotic pictures meant for entertainment. "I watch them purely for entertainment, nothing else," he says with a smile.
Students interviewed said one does not get addicted after one viewing. Rather, one gets hooked over time. Jared Kirui* was introduced to pornography through a sex scene he watched in a movie. Then he went on to search for more to satisfy a growing curiosity.
"I searched the Web and found more sites," he recalls. "It is very addictive and nowadays I have to watch at least one a week especially at night when the cyber cafÈ is not very busy," he reveals.
As the new lifestyle takes root at university campuses, students have had to contend with some unexpected consequences. Some fastidious students have been forced to switch rooms after realising they were staying with porn addicts. Jason Kimathi, for instance, sought the assistance of the hostel keeper to move to another room after he realised his roommate was a blue movie junkie.
"I could not continue living with him and had to look for another room. Initially the janitor declined to get me another room but gave in when I persisted," Kimathi says.
In an interesting twist, some students use pornographic material to get rid of colleagues they consider uncooperative. Geoffrey Okwayo*, a first year student, was forced out by roommates who watched blue movies all the time and filled the walls of their room with all manner of lewd pinups.
Owing to his Christian beliefs, he viewed the pictures with distaste. He suspects that his Christian faith might have prompted them to come up with the ruse to get rid of him.
"I used to preach to them daily and even urged them to attend church which they were not ready to do. I think this bothered them and the only way to create leeway to watch pornography was to throw me out," says a rueful Okwayo.
Even the religious
It is however said that the craze has affected even staunch Christians. According to rumours doing the rounds in campuses, some born-again Christians have been caught red-handed indulging in pornography.
Peter Omolo* recalls an incident when he and some friends visited a highly regarded Christian Union leader for prayers late in the night after a friend was abruptly taken ill. What they found out was a far cry from the man they knew. He was engrossed in a blue movie.
source.standard.ke