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{
    "id": 858692,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/858692/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 234,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Halake",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13184,
        "legal_name": "Abshiro Soka Halake",
        "slug": "abshiro-soka-halake"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, just this month alone, 1.6 million children are going to get out of school, and half of those are women and girls who have attained the age of puberty. I am referring to the Standard Eight pupils and Form Four students. From the 1.6 million children, half of whom are girls, who is going to provide the sanitary pads for them in January? Therefore, we are not solving our problems; we are not finding sustainable solutions; we are making sure that we just favour imports rather than providing solutions to menstrual health issues, providing sanitary pads and making sure that the rights of a woman to have dignity, to go to school and afford sanitary pads are denied. We do not have a right to become the lords of poverty by distributing even the most basic and the most --- What should I say? This is something that should be given--- In fact, it should not be given. I would like to live in a country where everybody can afford a sanitary pad so that we are not posing for pictures with a sanitary pad that we are handing over to a girl in school. Once again, do not get me wrong, Madam Temporary Speaker. I am grateful for the support that the Government is giving to our girls, but we must go beyond that. That cannot be the end to this story; we need to make sure we make everything in this country sustainable. We need to ensure that if there are needs for our girls, then there is a sustainable solution for it. This will be encouraging local production and providing a good environment where our manufacturers can produce good quality and affordable sanitary pads. It does not require any special training in law or in economics to understand that taxes on menstrual products is punitive to women, which means less money is left in the female consumers pocket. Moreover, there are several benefits to supporting and incentivizing local production of anything, especially sanitary pads. Madam Temporary Speaker, local production would create employment. Similarly, there will be direct benefits to the local supply chain from packaging, printing, transportation to those companies that produce the glue and everything else. There would also be savings on foreign exchange market outflows because we are currently importing everything, which is haemorrhaging our country through foreign exchange market outflows arising from importation as opposed to enhanced foreign exchange market inflows if we were producing locally. It would encourage local investors and support the Buy Kenya, Build Kenya Initiative. It will also create a level playing field for local manufacturers‟ vis-à-vis the middlemen who import these items. Madam Temporary Speaker, local manufacturing will also discourage dumping of sub-standard products in our country, because it is being done in our territory. We can go to the factories and make sure the right standards are put in place. That way, we will not be stuck with sub-standard goods that we do not know what to do with, or we will end up burning. Even burning them means that we are still losing through hemorrhaging, because the Dollar will have already flown out of this country. Madam Temporary Speaker, I can go on and on, on this issue. The scenario has created a very unfair business environment and middlemen have now become the major-- - A few months ago, students would come to my office to look for jobs; but they now come with company registrations for me to get them tenders. They do not want to work anymore; and this is because we have become a „tendepreneuring‟ country since we import everything. They stopped bringing in curriculum vitae so that they can work and The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}