The Kiambu government will be compelled to start a hygiene programme that will see it buying and distributing sanitary towels to all public facilities if a bill to do so goes through.
The bill, sponsored by UDA-nominated MCA Margaret Kinyanjui, will require the Finance department to include buying of sanitary pads in its budget in each and every financial year.
Speaking at Limuru town, she said the pads will be distributed to public hospitals, dispensaries in rural areas, public toilets as well as primary schools and day secondary schools.
Kinyanjui, who is lobbying other MCAs to support the bill, says a lot of families living in abject poverty do not buy sanitary pads.
“In some remote areas in our county, you can find some women who are unable to buy the necessities for themselves as well as for their daughters. These people are the ones we are targeting” she says.
The county will be buying the towels for hospitals where women can access them, while both primary and secondary schools will receive deliveries in each term.
The move will boost the efforts of the Education ministry, which distributes sanitary pads to primary and secondary schools through the office of each subcounty director.
Kinyanjui, who started a programme of supporting needy families with sanitary pads since she was a watchwoman, asked the MCAs to support the bill once she tables it.
The nominated MCA says she registered a group last year as a CBO: Queens Foundation.
She has been distributing the sanitary towels to all wards in the county and gets encouragement from her supporters, led by her mentor and Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wa.
Kinyanjui says the door for any supporter to help her buy more pads is still open as she waits for her bill to be tabled, discussed and passed.
“Even as we wait for the bill to be ready, tabled in the assembly, discussed and enacted to be law, we still need to support our people. I still need people’s support, the door is still open,” she said.