A Kenyan senator was ejected from parliament after attending a session while wearing a white suit stained red in an apparent menstrual activism campaign.
Gloria Orwoba, of the ruling coalition, is due to table a motion on a bill to provide for free sanitary pads on Wednesday as part of efforts to end period poverty.
Senators disrupted Tuesday’s 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.”
Speaker Amason Kingi ordered the senator to go change her clothes before she could be readmitted to the chambers.
“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,” the speaker said.
Outside the chambers, the Senator Orwoba told journalists; “We’re pushing to end the shadow pandemic which is actually period stigma and period poverty. One of the things that I’m advocating for and trying to legislate is to ensure that we give free sanitary towels to all school-going children.”
Drama as Senator Gloria Orwoba is ejected from Senate Plenary session for appearing with a stained trouser. The senator said she was on her periods and that was a ‘natural accident’ pic.twitter.com/AnVxyDHPPJ
— Abdulahi Adan (@AbdulahiAdan10) February 14, 2023