According to reports, a Kenyan senator was expelled from the legislature after showing up to a meeting wearing a white suit that had been intentionally stained red as part of an alleged menstruation activism effort.
In an effort to combat period puberty, Gloria Orwoba of the ruling coalition is scheduled to introduce a motion on Wednesday (15 Feb. 2023), regarding a law that would offer free sanitary pads.
According to reports, senators disrupted Tuesday’s (14 Feb 2023) afternoon session to draw the Speaker’s attention to Ms Orwoba’s “inappropriate dress code”.
But the senator protested saying: “I am shocked that someone can stand here and say that the House has been disgraced because a woman has had her periods.”
@Senator @gloria_orwoba , If we can have free toilet paper , Condoms Despenser in almost every toilet in the Kenya., we can also have free menstrual pads for all women.#FreeThePeriod
Pads Then Condoms pic.twitter.com/FRYjEkkd7A
— Simon Dedan (@Simon_Dedan) February 14, 2023
The senator had to go change her clothes before being allowed back into the rooms, according to Speaker Amason Kingi.
“Having periods is never a crime Senator Gloria, I sympathise with you that you are going through the natural act of menstruation, you have stained your wonderful suit, I’m asking you to leave so that you go change and come back with clothes that are not stained,”
In an interview with the journalist outside the chambers, Senator Orwoba confirmed by saying “unfortunately I have been kicked out because I’m on my period and we are not supposed to show our period when we are on our period and that is the kind of period stigma girls and women are having outside.”
Ref: africanews.com
