Significant Barriers to Quality Menstrual Hygiene Management Persist Across Kenya

Significant barriers to high-quality menstrual hygiene management(MHM) persist across Kenya and remain a particular challenge for low-income women and girls.

As the World Menstrual Hygiene Day is marked with the theme “Empowerment,” and the slogan “No More Limits. Let’s empower women and girls through good,” formative research shows that girls face monthly challenges, with 65 percent of women and girls in Kenya unable to afford sanitary pads. 1 Only 50 percent of girls say that they openly discuss menstruation at home.

Just 32 percent of rural schools have a private place for girls to change their menstrual product. 2 And only 12 percent of girls in Kenya would be comfortable receiving the information from their mother.

There are also more jarring statistics signaling that menstruation is tied to more fundamental risks and issues of gender inequity, with studies showing 2 out of 3 of pad users in rural Kenya receiving them from sexual partners and 1 in 4 girls do not associate menstruation with pregnancy.

World Menstrual Hygiene Day is being celebrated for the fourth year now on May 28, with more than 400 partner-organizations working towards creating awareness on MHM, as part of the initiative by WASH United (water, sanitation, hygiene).

In recent years, there have been active efforts by individuals and organizations to promote awareness regarding menstrual hygiene through building toilets, providing low-cost pads and appropriate disposal facilities to women who previously did not have access to them.

Studies by UNICEF show that 28 percent of female students do not attend school when on their period due to the unavailability of hygienic absorbent materials. This, in turn, results in them ultimately dropping out of school.

An estimated 1 out of 10 girls miss school during menstruation in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Although there is evidence in Kenya illustrating the problem, the evidence linking the impact of poor menstrual health, an encompassing term for menarche and MHM, on critical outcomes is limited.

Current studies have small sample sizes, and they rely on qualitative, self-reported, or anecdotal data making it difficult to generalize findings across different types of adolescent populations and diverse regions which have different cultural and socio-economic contexts. Yet, MHM programs are designed assuming these linkages.

There is a need for more research to understand the impact of MHM programs on life outcomes. A lack of alignment between diverse stakeholders and sector siloes is hindering progress on menstrual health.

Immediate opportunities exist to better support adolescent girls’ MHM in Kenya, including improved access to timely menstruation and puberty education, improved product access and affordability for low-income consumers, integration of girl-friendly features into sanitation design and infrastructure, and political advocacy for improved MHM.