65 per cent of women cannot afford sanitary towels

An investigative report aired by a local TV station some years back exposed the grim reality of girls using goat skin and leaves as sanitary towels.

Last year, Baringo County Woman Representative Gladwel Tungo launched a sanitary towels programme aimed at keeping girls in school.

The government has shown its commitment in keeping girls in school through its stand-alone policy which was approved in November last year.

The National Menstrual Hygiene Policy - the first of its kind in Kenya - aims at scaling up the management of menstrual hygiene especially for the vulnerable populations such as refugees, internally displaced persons, women and girls in informal settlements among others.

It is mind-boggling that, 57 years after independence, our girls and women are so ravaged by poverty with 65 per cent unable to afford sanitary towels.