Study shows that 65 percent of young Kenyan women support dating older men.
According to research, men aged 35 and above visit online dating sites which enhances them to engage in multiple relationships.
“Love has evolved and is now described as a rather complex and dynamic emotion that can ape and flow over time,” mentioned Elizabeth Atieno.
Additionally, she reported that, “recently there has been a concerning trend of younger women choosing to date older men.”
For instance in Western countries around 8% of couples have an age gap of 10 years or more.
As of 2022, 65% of Kenyan young women found it alright to date older men, popularly known as wababas, while 33% were already having romantic relationships with the older men.
Despite challenges in each gap relationship such as; social stigma, different priorities in life,or goals that don’t align, clashing social circles and age related health challenges, ladies maintain that communication is key to making any relationship work.
“Most of the women are very lazy to work and they feel that if they go for older men who have already established something in life, then it’s going to be an easy way out of poverty and easy way out of laziness,”stated George Otula, Homa Bay resident.
“I think it’s for security purposes, many young men are into everything fun, everything enjoyable but they are not into places where security is available,” Edith Brenda stated.
For the young men, there have been concerns about their preference for multiple sexual partners according to the national library for medicine.
There has been an increase in the prevalence of multiple sexual partners among adolescent boys and young boys from 18.7% in 2003 to 33.3% in 2014.
Young men aged 20-24 years were more likely to have multiple sexual partners compared to adolescents aged 15-19 years.
Additionally, adolescent boys and young men from houses with more wealth and higher education are more likely to have more sexual partners.
“Young men in this generation don’t want to be committed to a relationship that’s why you found them watakaa na huyu msichana leo, kesho wawe wamebadilisha tena kesho kutwa, tena wanapenda, kuna kitu inaitwa desire ya kukua validated, kuonekana kuwa wee ni mwanaume,” mentioned one of the residents.
“Men see, men don’t feel, whatever they see they grab, so if they see something they adore or something they like I’m basically going to use the word ‘lust’ they’ll go for it, so for them they don’t use the brain or heart, they use the eyes,”added Edith.
“Men believe that polygamy is so natural, men need pleasure, men need fun,” stated Cyrus Wanga, Homa Bay resident.
“Amidst all these challenges surrounding the current dating scene, some have leveraged on technology in search for their lifetime partners with social media platforms being some of the best avenues,” reported Elizabeth.
