President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday signed the Basic Education Amendment Bill into law ushering in a new dawn for girls at puberty.
According to the newly signed law, government has the sole responsibility to provide free, quality and enough sanitary towels to schoolgirls who have reached puberty.
“The basic Education Amendment Act amends Basic Education Act, placing the responsibility of providing free, sufficient and quality sanitary towels to every girl child registered and enrolled in a public basic institution and has reached puberty, on the government,” read the Act in part.
The law seeks to reduce absenteeism cases for girls who are forced to remain out of school when they are having their periods.
Statistics from the Ministry of Education reveal that a girl in primary school misses about 18 learning weeks when she is on her periods out of the 108 learning weeks in a year.
This gives boys an upper-hand in class since they rarely miss out on class while girls run an increased risk of dropping out.
The law has also tasked government to ensure it comes up with an environmentally sound mechanism for the disposal of the sanitary towels in schools.
Government has been working towards the programme for a while.
In November last year, all duty charged on raw materials used to manufacture the towels was removed.
The raw materials attracted a Value Added Tax (VAT) of 16 per cent and an excise duty of 25 per cent.