TikTokers want Azimio to protest over high cost of menstrual health products
Three Kenyan TikTokers have called on the government to address the issue of high cost of menstrual health products in Kenya.
In their video, the three young ladies, led by Miss Kithusi, said cheapest pack of pads they found in a supermarket retailed for about Sh122, up from Sh50, and wondered how young girls and women living below the poverty line could afford these products.
They are of the opinion that such females would have to debate whether to buy food or pads.
The three also demanded to know what beauty contestant winners and foundations dealing with period poverty have been doing for girls and women to end period poverty and advocate for the lowering of the cost of pads.
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They then called on the opposition Azimio la Umoja – One Kenya Coalition not just protest over the cost of maize meal (unga) but also to advocate for lowering of the cost of menstrual health products in the country.
“We are not happy at all. What we have seen in the supermarket is very wanting. There is no way you people will complain about the high cost of unga and no one is talking about pads. Where will these girls from the ghetto get that money to buy pads? Free government pads that we should be getting are now being sold to us for Sh62. No one is talking about the girl child being denied pads, no one is talking about their prices increasing. We are not complaining about that but we need someone to speak up for us out there,” the TikTokers said..
@dinnslae0 leo niko na machungu than ever😪😪 this is not okaayy we need someone to speed about period poverty 😥@fypシ fypシ @fypシ 🥀 @Sakaja Official ✅
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“You must decide whether you will speak up for us or we speak for ourselves. Pads should not even be sold to us, condoms should. Why are condoms free? It’s not optional for females to menstruate. It is something we were born with but condoms are being distributed for free when one can abstain. Pads we should be getting for free are being sold to us even in supermarkets,” they said.
The average woman with a light period flow often use three packs of eight pads each for her ‘monthlies’ while those with heavy flows use up to four packs of eight long and thicker pads each during this time. Thicker pads tend to be more expensive than the regular pads.
Senator Gloria Orwoba has been actively campaigning to end period poverty and shame in Kenya. She said her experience of being kicked out of Parliament in February after she painted her white pants red in her private parts area helped her understand the discrimination faced by some Kenyan girls during their period.
Senator Orwoba is currently pushing for a motion to increase government funding for the distribution of free sanitary pads and hygiene products in all public schools.
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