By Wilkister Akinyi
Sanitary Towels Budget Slashed from Ksh 470m to Ksh260m Leaving Women and Girls Strive to Obtain the Towels.
Different local organizations address the legislation enacted by the members of parliament. Formative research shows that girls face monthly challenges, with 65% of women and girls in Kenya unable to afford sanitary pads.
L-R: Janet Mbugwa , Ruth Kinuthia , Margaret Sumba and Yasmin Mohammad during a press conference at Kibra.[Wilkister Akinyi]
A group of non-governmental organizations have raised an alarm over the high prices of sanitary towels for women and girls in informal settlements.
They argue that those living in the informal areas are struggling to acquire sanitary towels terming a human right which needs to be addressed by the government.
The lobby group advocating for government intervention are Superb CBO Organization in partnership with Inua Dada, Making A Difference (MAD) Sister, Kibera Community, and Women Rights Defender Hurb.
Yasmin Mohammed, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Superb CBO Foundation revealed that 65 % of women and girls cannot access sanitary towels due to the limited supply of sanitary within the informal settlement and across the nation at large.
She condemned the decision made by the members’ parliament for reducing the menstruation hygiene budget and urged them to review and increase the budget allocation.
“Surprisingly members of parliament slashed the current budget for sanitary towels from Ksh 470M to Ksh 260M,” Yasmin lauded.
Additionally, Janet Mbugua, the founder of Inua Dada Foundation noted that girls are using unsafe means of accessing sanitary towels which leads to an increase in HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancies, early marriages, school dropout, and unsafe street abortion resulting in high maternal deaths.
She also noted that menstruation health right is an issue that should be sensitized to the public to curb the challenges the menstruators face.
“Menstrual health has become a very important component in a woman’s life. Women and girls need to be taught on how to manage themselves when they experience menstruation,” Mbugua affirmed.
She also urged the local and international organizations, the National and County government and the community needs to facilitate menstrual health management.
“This is by ensuring they get adequate and relevant knowledge and information on menstrual health management, access to quality sanitary towels and other basic necessity like undergarments and access to clean water.” She said.
Ruth Kinuthia, founder of the Women Rights Defender Hurb, the National Government Affirmative (NGAF) action fund is mandated to distribute free sanitary towels nationwide to adolescent girls who are enrolled at public schools and are not equally distributed as stipulated by the policy.
“The sanitary towels do not reach out at grassroots level. And as a result girls and women are forced to access them through unsafe ways. They engage in transactional sexual activities, intergenerational partners and hard labor in order to access sanitary towels,” Kinuthia stated.
She declared that they need to end all the unsafe means of accessing sanitary towels, especially in the informal settlements where the environment is not conducive for the health aspect.
“The environment is not friendly as there’s shortage of water, lack of access to clean water and sanitation which causes diseases and, in this regards, girls and women end up getting infections which is very dangerous to their health,” said Kinuthia.
Speaking during this year’s world menstruation Hygiene day 2022, Yasmin lauded that their theme is “to create a world where no woman or girl is held back because they menstruate, by 2030”. She added that the government should chip in to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
