Many girls approach me after my formal mentorship sessions, some with their legs squeezed to prevent the flow from leaking, asking if I have any pads left in my bag, sometimes I do but most of the time I don't have enough for all of them.

These girls are but a token of the representation of many many school girls in Kenya who are forced to skip school for lack of proper, affordable and safe access to menstrual facilities.

The conversation on access to menstrual products especially for school going girls has been going on for so long. Many stakeholders have been engaged but still not enough has been done.

Last year, parliament slashed the budget allocation for sanitary pads from 470 Million to 270 Millions, making accessibility of this important product hard for many women and girls. The situation has been made worse by the current increase in the cost of living. Families are increasingly prioritizing food and basic amenities to provision of menstrual products forcing many women to result to transactional sex to obtain a menstrual pack resulting to sexually transmitted infections, early pregnancies, early marriages, difficult parenthood, stigma, school dropouts and eventually deplorable living standards, mental illness and suicides.

I do recognise that it's not the responsibility of the women representative only to champion for the rights of women, especially the rights to health and dignity, but under tough circumstances like this, women and girls in Kenya have no option but to count on them to stand up and fight for them..

This petition therefore appeals to the office of the chairperson of women representative caucus to direct all the women reps to  

• Urgently utilize the budget allocation to the offices of Women Rep to establish accessible pad bank on the 47 counties of Kenya 
• Appeal to the women rep to rally both elected and nominated women members of the county assembly and male allies to design and implement menstrual equity programmes in collaboration with CSOs in their respective counties.
• Call for strengthening of partnerships, collaborations, knowledge and experience sharing on best practices & emerging trends, innovations and evidence-based solutions to achieve menstrual equity and
• Advocate for the increase of the budget allocation to sanitary pads by both the county and the national government 

Menstrual justice is tightly attached to achieving gender equality hands while it will take the concerted efforts of multisectorial stakeholders. The office of women rep has to step in the gap and lead this mission. We cannot afford to fail our women and girls

Sign  this petition to help rally the offices of our women representatives to rise up and advocate for pragmatic menstrual justice.