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{
    "id": 1215564,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1215564/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 373,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orwoba",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "We need up to six sanitary towels sometimes per day. Let me break it down. Six sanitary towels means that from the moment you wake up in the morning to the moment you go to bed - when we still wear the sanitary towels - we need this so that we can continue with our duties. That means that on average, you need 30 pads for a person who is bleeding heavily every month. So that you understand the shadow pandemic that we are dealing with is actually a serious, I want to make a comparison. One packet of seven pads costs up to Kshs90. If you may need two or three packets, on average, you are using Kshs360 per period. When we say lack of access to sanitary towels, it does not mean that the sanitary towels are not there, they are there, but girls and women cannot afford these products. So, what do they do? In some areas of this country, we have girls going out under a tree, digging a hole and sitting on the hole the whole time of their menstruation. I want my fellow Senators in the House to imagine that today you are missing a session because you are sitting in a hole somewhere in Samburu County or Kisii County because you have to bleed out on a natural process. That is the reality that is there. When you go to prisons, we have some of the prisoners actually sharing sanitary towels. The visual image of that is that, when I am not on my heavy days I use a sanitary towel, I feel as though I might not be bleeding too much, I pass it over to a fellow prisoner because she is on her heavy days. These are the visual images that I want people to imagine, for lack of a better word. When I walk in to the House with an accidental stain and that in itself is such a gory--- It is difficult for my fellow Senators to be able to put up with to the extent that they demand that I have to leave the House. I want them to imagine their constituents, electorates and bosses who gave them their votes sitting on a hole the whole day because they cannot afford sanitary towels. I also want them to imagine their daughters--- I heard Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale saying that he has so many daughters and wives and, therefore, he understands the issues of women. I would like Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale to imagine all his daughters and all his wives, digging holes every single month and sitting on them so that they can bleed in peace because they cannot afford these sanitary towels. I want them to imagine, for instance, that the last born who does not have a heavy flow can use a sanitary towel, pass it over to one of the wives because the wife have a heavy flow and use the same sanitary towel. That is the reality that we have as Kenyans. This is a real issue. It is a shadow pandemic that we seriously need to look into. That is why I am moving this Motion so that we can be able for once to discuss candidly and openly and debate on matters that directly affect those who have elected us to this House, so that we can come up, support the Bill with an understanding that this is a real shadow pandemic. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, on the issue of access to menstrual products I am pushing and it is my prayer that through the Bill, I am proposing, that we have free sanitary pads given to all public schools for both primary and secondary."
}