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"content": "We have the likes of Janet Mbugua, who through her initiative, has done the same. We have the likes of Njeri wa Migwi who is taking care of a number of women in the safe houses who unfortunately have to flee from Gender-Based Violence (GBV). She also does a lot of work around menstrual equity."
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"id": 1555503,
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"content": "It is not only women who have been doing this. We have a young man also who operates by the name “The Period Man”. These is an opportunity that I feel that as a 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."
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"id": 1555504,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1555504/?format=api",
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"content": "legislator, those champions can be absorbed, so that they help to move this country to a point where we deal with period poverty to conclusion."
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"content": "As I proceed, it is important to know that the Cabinet Secretary has some mandate there. It has been outlined that the Cabinet Secretary shall appoint the chairperson and members of the committee in sub-section1 (1) by way of notice of Gazette. I would like to point out that members of the committee shall be appointed at different times, so that the respective expiry dates of their terms of office fall in different times. It is because we have had a problem with sustainability of programmes such that the moment the timeline of members of a committee lapses, what happens is that even pending projects or pending work is thrown out with their term. This is to ensure that we promote sustainability of all the activities by the committee. I wanted to highlight that to the House and the public that this is one thing that I have stipulated in this Bill."
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"content": "I also want to highlight that in Clause 6 we have described the qualifications of the chairperson for appointment. If you look at Clause 6(c), the chairperson must have at least 10 years working experience in a gender-related field. There is assumption that as long as you talk about matters gender, you do not need any qualifications. In fact, there is an assumption that anyone can run matters gender. The assumption is that anyone can be a Cabinet Secretary for Gender, Culture and Arts. That is why we have had a lot of problems in terms of procurement and distribution of sanitary pads because we have actors who do not understand what we are trying to do. We have people within that space who think that what we are distributing has got no repercussion whatsoever."
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"content": "Many of the problems that we have in this country, including femicide, are driven by lack of access to menstrual hygiene products. We always talk about teenage pregnancies and young mothers. Sen. Miraj has a Bill on child parents. Why are these things happening? Nobody goes behind the scenes to understand why we are having so many teenage parents."
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"content": "When I particularly drew that line that the chairperson of the committee must have at least 10 years of working experience in a gender-related field, it is because we no longer want to take chances by experimenting or holdings hands of people who have got no experience or idea of what we are trying to do."
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"content": "Period poverty is a bigger issue than many may think. It affects the economy and our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). If I had more time, I would have come with numbers in terms of how missing classes translates to the success rates our children in school. I would have shown you how access to menstrual hygiene products, or lack of it, affects even simple activities such as market days where women are unable to carry out their businesses. This is not an issue that just affects women. It is an issue that affects women, but in the long run, affects the entire society. Therefore, because of that, there is a stipulation that we have at least 10 years working experience for the chair who will be nominated. Moving on to Clause 7 is the mandate of the committee. One of the mandates that I want to put out clearly is that that committee will manage, control and administer the assets in terms of procurement and distribution. In the past, we have domiciled the Fund in a Ministry, which decides by way of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 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."
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"content": "2015 without any deliberations of the impact of the end result that is desired. They say they are going to buy a certain number of pads. I was even wondering who decides the sizes. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I do not know if you are aware that sanitary pads also have sizes. When we were going into these details, we know that the Ministry purchases sanitary pads, but who decides the sizes to be purchased? Who sits down and decides we are going to buy this size or that, this quality or that, reusable or non-reusable, tampons or not, menstrual cups or not? Who decides? It is assumed that it is a one-size- fits-all. It is assumed that it is a one product, good for all. That is the wrong assumption. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, what we are trying to do, first of all, in very simple terms, is to be able to go in and say, this is how we should spend the money that you are giving, so that we can have maximum impact. So, that committee will go into managing, controlling and administering the distribution of pads to curb all the current challenges that we are having. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I will quickly brush through what the committee shall do. It shall advise the Government on the provision of sanitary towels in terms of priority areas, the vulnerable schools and restrictions of the product. We also have a point here that I would like to highlight. In Clause 8(c), this committee shall provide free, sufficient and quality sanitary towels to every woman employed by or studying in a public institution, and to every woman who is in the custody of a correctional facility. The key word is, “sufficient”. The question is: What is sufficient? Right now, there is an assumption that if the Ministry of Public Service, Gender and Affirmative Action goes into a school and gives every girl one packet for the year, they have carried out their mandate. It cannot be. One packet has eight sanitary towels, yet we believe every single month, there is a girl having her periods. Therefore, if you are giving one packet with eight pieces of sanitary towels, I do not know what the assumption is, because there are 12 months in the year, and so when we are talking about “shall provide sufficient,” understand that periods happen every month, and that every month, that girl will require at the bare minimum, eight pieces of the sanitary towels. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in reference to the quality of the sanitary towels, we have had many incidences where a majority of our girls are suffering from infections. You have vulnerable girls who have no access to sanitary towels. Someone donates, gives or they buy a poor quality sanitary towel, because that is what they have. They use it, and before you know it, within a week or two, they are suffering Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs). Consequently, they have to start dealing with access to a medical facility, to see a gynaecologist. That means, they have to start dealing with money to treat that infection. All this is because someone somewhere in the Government thought that as long as you give money and tell that guy to purchase pads, we are good. This Bill is trying to mitigate the gaps that have been there over the years, the reason we have not had a high impact in terms of that particular programme. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I would like to draw the attention of the House and the public to Clause 8(d) which states- “The Committee shall in consultation with county governments provide a safe and environmentally friendly mechanism for the disposal of sanitary towels”. 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."
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"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."
}
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