Boda boda riders culprits as Kenyan girls exchange sex for sanitary pads

Girls in Kenya are trading their bodies in order to get sanitary products.

This is according to a recent research released by UNICEF in September 2018.

The research shows 65 per cent of women in Kibera have had to have sex in order to access sanitary products.

The report further shows 22 per cent of girls in school have had to buy themselves sanitary pads with only 10 per cent admitted to having transactional sex in order to access pads.

A further 54 per cent reported challenges in accessing sanitary products.

The report  has also put boda-boda riders at the heart of most transactions by school girls who needed the products.

According to an artcile in The Independent UK, some of the students who participated in the study described how embarrassed by their periods and the stigma surrounding it were lured by boda-boda riders who bought them pads and underwear in return for sex.

Some of them emerged pregnant, forcing them to stay out of school.

President Uhuru Kenyatta signed a bill into law pledging that the government would provide free sanitary pads to school going girls who had reached puberty in 2017.

The implementation, however, hit a snag this year after Basic Education PS Bellio Kipsang said some hardship areas were affected by supply.

The Ministry was forced to transfer the supply duty to the State Department of Gender Affairs in the Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs.