Imagine a scenario where an 18 year old girl(carlo), who has been away from her parents for quite a long time, finally comes home, calls her mother to her bedroom, and proceeds to reveal that she has missed her periods not once, but twice.

Angry mother screams all sorts of insults at her, calling her a loose pig and demanding to know who the dirty monster that impregnated her could be.

Then suddenly, the seemingly indifferent daughter pulls out her cell phone and dials the ‘monster’s’ number and in a few minutes a black limousine is seen through the gate and parks.

Then this old man strolls out, dressed in white expensive linen, obviously showing off that he is a rich man.

The dismayed parents look on as the man begins to speak, he reveals that Carlo had informed him lately of the good news, (pregnancy) and is very willing to take up due responsibilities though he is a family man with a wife at home.

The man confidently states that; "I have given Carlo a house at Nyarutarama and when the baby comes, if a girl she will have 20percent of my wealth and a boy will take on after me and full control of all my businesses, and if God willing and they are twins, then I will be the happiest man on planet earth.”

A moment later the girl’s father says; "You can sleep with her again, so I can get more of those abundant luxuries each time she gets pregnant.”

So, what can be the motivation behind such a decision by a parent, like Carlo’s father? What is it about riches that would make a parent sacrifice a daughter? Or is it just that some who take such decisions are after all, not good parents in the first place.

What about what kids go through at the hands of their step-parents?

The children don’t have very good stories about their step-parents whatsoever, and yet even the step-parents, do not have interesting experiences themselves. Some are torn between wanting to impress the husband who is also the father of the kids, and yet caring for step-children as ones own is a nightmare to most.

At the end of the day, it’s the poor little ones to suffer, since the father cannot let go of his wife. And at the same time, the children matter a lot to him.

How then, shall we fight such ills in society? How can people be restrained from doing things they enjoy doing so much.

How do we promote the idea of stable marriages and maybe monogamy, yet we have cultures and religious beliefs that put a lot of premium on such practices as polygamy.

Then the idea of showing people the beauty of having fewer children and taking responsibility as far as the children are concerned, would be of great importance. This is because living the life of an illegitimate child has a lot of associated problems.

Ends