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{
    "id": 1555581,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1555581/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 441,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, we are all aligned to what Sen. Mungatana is saying. What he is asking is fundamental. I will go ahead and demonstrate to you how the Government of Kenya has addressed this issue. The only new part I can see in this Bill talks about correctional institutions and the committees to distribute, which I think is a policy issue. That Bill went through the Houses of Parliament in terms of budgetary allocation. I want to give you an example. In the Financial Year 2021/2022, the Ministry of Education had a budget for 1.7 million girls who had been enrolled in our schools. Therefore, they tried to capture girls in our education system who were at the puberty stage. That was between Class Six, Seven and Eight. They demonstrated that they needed about Kshs621 million to provide the nine packs as required by the existing Act. Due to budgetary constraints, they were allocated Kshs259 million only. That means that in the subsequent years, which I do not want to go into those numbers, there has been incremental capitation by the Ministry of Education for provision of sanitary pads. If you look at the Kenya Environmental, Sanitation and Hygiene Policy (KESHP) 2016-2030, it was adjusted to look at this issue holistically. In this Act of 2017, the policy required that all schools must have private collection and disposal systems for used menstrual clothes and sanitary towels. There are fundamentals of this Bill that we are dealing with. The first one is the issue of provision, which does exist. Is there enough capitation for it? I wish my sister, Sen. Gloria, instead rethought this entire Bill into a policy framework that will make sure there is enough capitation for what exists in that particular Bill like the KESHP 2016- 2030 that looks at how to deal with the issue of hygiene infrastructure in the country, should be financed. My worry is that if we end up over-legislating, we will disadvantage the women. For you to pass this Bill, you should start another journey of looking for its budget when the other budget is suffering from not getting enough capitation. That way, you will disadvantage the women in getting enough resources because of what already exists. It is a fundamental question that I wanted to raise. For instance, if you think about what that policy requires in terms of private system of having women to collect and dispose of sanitary towels. If you look at what happened in the backdrop of the Act that exists, in January, 2023, public health officers closed a number of schools. An example is Ogada Primary School in South Kabuoch in Ndhiwa Constituency in Homa Bay County, where my brother Sen. Kajwang’ comes from. The reason the school was closed is because they did not comply with the policy that exists to make sure that there are proper toilets or pit latrines to dispose sanitary towels. The policy required capitation, so that all schools have separate latrines for girls, such that even when they go to change their pads, they have got private toilets. You can imagine we already have a law and a system that can develop 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."
}