It is easy to overlook the experiences of boy children. Literature from East Africa suggests that there is disproportionate emphasis on the rights of the girl child and that this disproportionality has been at the expense of the boy child.

This imbalance in favour of a particular gender, while seeking to engender greater gender parity, may have unintended consequences. Real transformation of gender relations requires an equal focus on the boy child.

Professor Paul Wandere points out that “what this world order fails to grasp is the fact that the boy child has the same or worse challenges as girls have.”

Others ask, “Why should the boy child of today suffer just because historically the girl child was marginalized? Aren’t we also creating disparities that would need future rectification in the process? Both boys and girls need to be educated and mentored. We will be going wrong as a region if we give much attention to the girl child and forget that tomorrow will come when we will need the boys to become men. There is a need for more men to come out as mentors for the boy child, to guide and teach them what is expected of them as they grow up into men. After all we need each other for a healthy nation”.

Report by CPLO