Female KCPE and KCSE candidates across the country will get a free three month supply of sanitary towels, Education CS George Magoha has said.
The Ministry of Education has partnered with the M-Pesa Foundation to provide Sanitary towels to the students who are set to begin the exams in March. The foundation has provided 540,000 sanitary towels to 188,000 girls from slums and poor backgrounds with
The CS flagged off the towels on Monday at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development headquarters in Nairobi. M-Pesa Foundation Chairman, Michael Joseph, said that the lack of the vital items was exposing the girls to sexual risks as they attempted to get money for the towels.
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The centre for Women empowerment last week appealed to the government to streamline the provision of sanitary towels in schools to support girls from poor backgrounds.
According to the NGO, many girls are resorting to the use of unsanitary items as a cheaper alternative given that they cannot afford the towels.
In 2017, the government kicked off a free distribution programme after President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law a bill to amend the Basic Education Act to provide sanitary towels to all girls in public schools who had reached puberty age.
Despite the government disbursing funds for the programme, Magoha in 2019 raised concern that the ministry had not met its target after random sampling showed that many girls had still not received the towels.
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