TWO Nyeri MCAs have said they will oppose a county plan to buy standard eight boys underwear. They are Gicheru Chege (Mukurweini Central) and Mwangi Mubea (Mukurweini West).
Chege said he will not let the garments be taken to the schools in his ward, saying there are other priorities the county should have focused on for the boys. “It seems the county government wants to show that the boys’ parents cannot but underpants for them.
This is corruption in the offing because the prices of the underwares will be inflated by 100 per cent,” he said. Mubea said he will oppose the proposal when it is tabled in the assembly. Adding his voice to the debate, Maendeleo Ya Wanaume Organisation chairman Nderitu Njoka said distributing underpants “is not helping the future of the boys”.
“We know girls have their own problems and that is why they are being given sanitary pads, but what about boys? What problems do they have? he said. Njoka said the government should have made circumcision free for boys after they finish standard eight, instead of buying the pants.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers county executive secretary, Mutahi Kahiga, said buying underwares should not be a priority for boys. “Does it mean this is the only problem a boy has? Why can’t they buy books and take them to the boys?
I don’t think this is what we need to do for the boys’ education,” he said. The Nyeri government, through the Ministry of Special Programmes, has set aside Sh800,000 million in the 2016-17 budget for boys’ underpants and sanitary towels for girls.