Activists urge government to reduce price of sanitary towels
An association of women championing for Menstrual Health Management in Kenya have petitioned the government to reduce the the price of sanitary towels.
They say the high cost of sanitary pads is contributing to increasing cases of teen pregnancies.
Speaking during a menstrual health awareness campaign for secondary school students at Moi Girls High School Nangili in Soy, they said many parents can’t afford sanitary pads for their daughters due to the high price.
Led by former nominated Senator Daisy Nyongesa they said due to the high price of pads teens are forced to exchange their bodies for pads hence resulting in increasing cases of teen pregnancies.
Ms Nyongesa said if the prices of sanitary pads will be reduced to below Sh50 majority of parents will be able to purchase the goods for their children hence reduction of teen pregnancies.
The former Senator called upon president William Ruto to champion for subsidies of pads in Kenya to allow the cost of sanitary towels to be affordable to the majority of parents,” said Ms Nyongesa.
“Currently the price of sanitary pads is very expensive at price ranging between Sh50 and Sh100, majority of parents can’t afford it due to hard economic times.”said Ms Nyongesa
Moi Girls Nangili Principal Mercy Juma said due to the challenge of pads some girls skip classes during menstrual period.
Ms Juma said there is a need to ensure sufficient supply of sanitary pads to students to avert cases of absenteeism and boost the image of girls during their periods.
“As a society we need to look at the need of sanitary pads to our children as an essential need, it is unfortunate in this century to see our girls missing classes due to lack of pads,” said Ms Juma.
She called upon other stakeholders to partner with the government to ensure girls get regular supply of pads.
“These responsibilities must not be left to the government alone. All of us must play a role in ensuring that our girls receive a sufficient supply of pads,” said Ms Juma.
Ms Juma hailed former students for Moi Girls Nangili for supplying girls in her school with pads.
“The gesture by old students of this school ought to be emulated by all of us, they have gone out of their way to supply more than 1000 girls in my school with pads,” added Ms Juma.
According to former students of Nangili girls, although Kenya has made tremendous gains over the years in a bid to end period poverty, a lot more still needs to be done.
Despite challenges faced by parents, Kenya in recent years has had a lot of gains in matters of menstrual hygiene management, including the decision to exempt sanitary towels from VAT in 2004.
This was to make pads more accessible to women and girls in the country.
In 2016, we celebrated the Education Act Bill which was passed into law that mandated the government to supply 4 million school-going girls with sanitary towels.
In 2020 Kenya launched its first-ever national stand-alone Menstrual Health Management (MHM) policy.
Despite all these efforts stakeholders believe that initiatives are not practical on the ground but mere Public Relations exercise which is marred with corruption hence hampering the drive to supply girls in schools with the pads.
Majority of parents are calling for the reduction of the prices of sanitary towels.
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