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"id": 1555511,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1555511/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Orwoba",
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"speaker": null,
"content": "I can bet you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, of all the gentlemen sitting in the Senate, maybe three, four or five might be able to give you a clear roadmap of how used sanitary towels or menstrual hygiene products are disposed of yet, we are dealing with millions of pieces of plastic, because a majority of these sanitary towels are plastic. So, this committee is also mandated to make sure that there is an environmentally safe plan to dispose of these menstrual hygiene products. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as I go off the curve a little bit, we do not have any regulations with regards to menstrual hygiene. We have an act which is anchored in the education laws that touches on sanitary pads. Therefore, I have been wondering, none of all these cabinet secretaries in the past and in the present have tabled a regulation to tell us in that space what we need to regulate. Why do I say that? Sometimes you go to institutions that have thousands of women, all of them bleeding and having their periods every month, and you find in that institution, whether a school or a factory--- We heard of the case of a factory where someone was punished because they threw a used sanitary pad in the wrong bin. All these institutions should be compelled to dispose of their menstrual hygiene products in a manner that is safe and environmentally friendly. We are in 2025 and I have not seen a regulation compelling schools, through the Ministry of Education, to procure and have incinerators that are environmentally friendly. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we have cases in schools at the grassroots where the girls are forced to interact with all these bulks of used sanitary pads and they are forced to go out to the field to burn them because there is no proper disposal mechanism under any regulation. As you can see, this is an area that has not been legislated, as much as we think it does not affect us. I have seen people going for the climate workshops and global conferences, but I do not hear them talking about the thousands of plastics in terms of sanitary pads or menstrual hygiene products and what we are doing with them. So, that is one of the mandates that is outlined there. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in terms of monitoring and evaluation (M&E), we have never had a monitoring and evaluation of this programme, yet we have spent millions and millions of shillings over the years. I have asked for an M&E report from the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Public Service, Gender and Affirmative Action and the Ministry of Health, so that I can understand, how far we have come, from the time we started distributing pads. What gains have we made? What are the challenges? There is no monitoring and evaluation programme. Can you imagine? We are spending Kshs1 billion in a programme with no monitoring and evaluation. That is one of the mandates that I have put for this particular committee. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as I highlight some of the issues that were highly discussed in the public participation, I would like to particularly touch on the biggest challenge that we have had in this programme. There has been a lot of theft. When I say theft, this is what I mean, you have a budget that is supposed to be used to procure sanitary pads. I stand corrected, but based on my findings, in the past, when the budget was domiciled in the Ministry of Education, it was ring-fenced around a budget line item called “General Supplies”. So, when you tell Kenyan women that I am giving you money for sanitary pads, so that we can deal with this issue of period poverty, but at the same The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}