The Superb Community Based Organisation has started an online petition to get Members of Parliament to increase the budget for sanitary pads meant for schools.
The Kibera-based organisation is calling for signatures from Members of the public to get the attention of the August House after their plea on the same earlier this year fell on deaf ears.
Yasmin Nassur, Superb’s Founder, said that menstruation, if not well managed, may affect the social, economic, political, health and Education aspects of girls and women’s lives.
“As we speak, over 65 per cent of women and girls cannot access quality menstrual products in Kenya. Menstruation needs to be prioritized as a matter of health as it contributes to the country’s development,” she said.
In May, the 12th Parliament reduced the budgetary allocation for sanitary pads from Sh470 million to Sh260 million.
The price for sanitary pads, Nassur said, has also increased from Sh5o to Sh70, making marginalized and underserved women and girls choose between sanitary pads and food.
It has been found that girls and women living in poverty usually end up trading sex for sanitary pads because they cannot afford them.
This makes them susceptible to the triple threat of HIV/AIDS contraction, unplanned pregnancies and Gender-based violence.
"If the government takes menstruation seriously as a matter of at-most urgency, then we will be able to curb some of these issues and challenges women and girls are experiencing,” Nassur said.
“We want the current members of the National Assembly to review upwards the budget allocation to pads so we can keep our girls in school and curb the triple threat,” she added.
Nassur said that digital pad dispensers should be installed in schools, hospitals and public spaces and free sanitary pads should be given to all girls puberty who are in public and private schools.
Comprehensive menstrual health education, she added, should also be given in schools, healthcare facilities and at home.
“We also call for the full implementation of the existing Menstrual Health Management policy and strategy in order to make menstruation a normal fact of life,” she concluded.
The petition can be found on the platform Change.org
