Sixty five per cent of women and girls in Kenya are not able to afford sanitary pads.
This has been blamed on lack of necessary information availed in schools for girls concerning puberty and menstrual hygiene management, communities still considering it a taboo to talk openly about it.
Most of these girls are then forced to indulge in sex to afford pads; two out of three girls in rural areas get the pads from sexual partners.
As we mark Menstrual Hygiene Day, there is a need for enhanced monitoring and evaluation of pad sale, distribution in schools both in rural and urban areas, provision of private washrooms for girls in schools, increased advocacy both on implementation of menstrual health management guidelines and allocation of funds to menstrual hygiene.
