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{
"id": 1555513,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1555513/?format=api",
"text_counter": 373,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Orwoba",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "going around in circles. This is because we all know in these tough economic times, some other items will be prioritised more than sanitary towels. My thinking and the proposal of this Bill was that the actual items, which is the sanitary pads, be bought. Who will buy the pads? Who will decide which pads to be bought? It is not someone sitting in the Ministry of Gender here in Nairobi, it is a committee at the grassroots level. I come from Kisii County, Bobasi Constituency. We have eight wards. Down at the ward level, at bare minimum, there will be a representation of those wards in that committee. In that committee, there will be a champion at the grassroots level who will say I have been championing this campaign. I have been going around in this constituency and these are the pain points and these are the vulnerable schools. At the county level, the county will be able to tell you that they are not interested in purchasing those imported Chinese products. It is at the county level, they will have a high uptake of such items such as locally made reusable sanitary towels. However, when you come to the Ministry level on a national platform, there is no way you will convince them that now we will start purchasing reusable pads. The stakeholders and the players at the national level will actually argue out that it is nothing, but that it is too complicated. So, what this Bill is actually trying to do is to take the powers from the national level and tell them, at the national level, you will sit, deliberate and give monies to the different counties. These committees are in different counties. At the county level, it is those members of that county committee who will then sit and say, in Kisii County, for example, we will no longer allow such and such product. This is because we have done our research and that product is actually causing infections. So, in Kisii County, we will procure A, B, C, D. Right now, there is no flexibility for the end user to pick what is procured in terms of sizes, quality and so on. There is no chance at the grassroots level for them to say probably all of them are vulnerable in terms of access to menstrual hygiene products. However, there is this particular school that is beyond vulnerable and maybe should be prioritised because of the budgetary limitations. That is what this Bill is trying to do; to devolve this particular programme down to the beneficiaries. We want them to feel the impact of a Government programme, attest and say that Government is actually intentionally ending period poverty. Mr. Temporary Speaker, I want to conclude by saying there was an argument about whether I should be the one to propose and table this Bill in the Senate; the ‘upper’ House or not. You know when people realise that your intention is for the people, to move a budget from here to there and to seal the loopholes that are encouraging corruption, the first thing they will say is that you cannot move that Bill in the Senate because it is a money Bill. I have challenged many people. Is there a Bill in both Houses that does not speak or touch on resources? More often than not, all the Bills, in one way or another, will touch or speak on resources. I am not trying to take away the mandate of the National Assembly, which is about allocating monies. The whole budgetary mandates that they have as a House. Part 3(16)A, on the financial provisions, says- “(1) the funds of the committee shall comprise of, one, monies that are appropriated by the National Assembly. 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."
}