Nominated Senator Gloria Orwaba has hailed the progress made in menstrual health in Kenya ahead o0f the menstrual hygiene day that will be marked globally on May 28.
“We’ve broken some glass ceilings because this is a topic that we would never discuss in public,” Orwoba said on Citizen TV’s DayBreak show Wednesday morning.
The senator narrated her personal experience, where she walked into parliament buildings with stained pants on February 15, 2023.
Fellow senators raised concern about Orwoba’s stain, prompting Speaker Amason Kingi to rule that Orowba should leave the chamber.
“I got my periods on my way to parliament and I decided that am not going to change my pants or cover it,” the Senator recalled.
Orwoba further defended her actions on grounds that she has been championing against period poverty since 2007 and the situation (her periods) obligated her to practice what she has been teaching young girls about self-esteem while on their periods.
“At that moment for me was you need to walk the talk,” she said, disputing allegations of stage managing.
She explained the relevance of menstrual hygiene advocacy and highlighted the equivalence of advocacy and distribution of sanitary towels, affirming they are both imperative.
“Without that advocacy, without us coming here on TV to highlight the real issues about menstruation being normal, nobody would even think twice to buy sanitary towels for donations,” she opined.
She revealed that some women in prisons share pads due to lack of freedom to express themselves and access to pads.
Orwoba painted a picture of communities in Kenya where a woman is not allowed in the main house on her period days.
“There are some cultures when a woman is on her period, she is not allowed into the house until her periods are over,” she said.
