• Education CS George Magoha said on Monday that the Sh470 million provided is insufficient.
• Magoha says some girls are forced to share with entire households, defeating the purpose of the programme.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING’A
The government has admitted a lack of funds to provide sanitary towels to adolescent school girls as required by law.
Education CS George Magoha said on Monday that the Sh470 million provided for the free sanitary pads programme can only supply school girls for four months.
"If you calculate the current allocation against a population of 1.4 million girls, then at best we can provide sanitary towels for only four months. What happens for the rest of the year?" Magoha asked.
The CS spoke in Nairobi when he flagged off sanitary towels for 800,000 girls to be used during the national examination period. The Mpesa Foundation donated the pads.
The distribution of sanitary towels will start in Garissa, Wajir, Tana River, Lamu, Voi, Taita Taveta, Elgeyo Marakwet, Transzoia, Turkana, Samburu, Uasin Gishu, Baringo and West Pokot counties.
Vihiga, Busia, Nyandarua and Nyeri will also be among the first counties to get the sanitary towels.
Distribution will be done in all public schools across the 47counties.
The ministry launched the programme to provide free sanitary towels for girls in 2017.
It aimed at cushioning vulnerable schoolgirls from drop-outs and absenteeism caused by troubles in managing their menstrual cycle for lack of pads and tampons.
Data from the Education ministry shows that a girl absent from school for four of 28 days loses 13 learning days. This is equivalent to two weeks of learning in every school term.
In an academic year (nine months) a girl loses 39 learning days equivalent to six weeks of learning time.
"In some places, these pads once provided are no longer for the schoolgirl but the whole household. This is also a challenge in retaining girls in school," Magoha said.
When the provision of sanitary towels to school came into force in June 2017, it fell under the Ministry of Education.
However, in February last year, it was moved to the Ministry of Gender.
In August, Magoha raised concerns that schoolgirls were not receiving the commodity despite the government allocating millions to support the programme.
A 2016 Unesco report estimates that one in 10 girls in sub-Saharan Africa is absent from school during their menstrual cycle.
(edited by O. Owino)