Kenyan senator campaigns against stigma around menstruation

By EVELYNE MUSAMBI
Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenyan senator Gloria Orwoba has said that she attended parliament while wearing a white pantsuit stained by her menstrual blood in order to combat the stigma surrounding women’s monthly periods. The incident last month inspired considerable public debate in Kenya about period shaming and the lack of access to sanitary pads for schoolgirls and others in Kenya and many African countries. Orwoba says she is now drafting legislation to require the government to provide sanitary pads to Kenyan schoolgirls and women incarcerated in prison.