The Senator who campaigns for an end to the shame around periods said she got stained on her way to work but proceeded to parliament with her stained clothes to drive home her point about period shaming which has caused teenage girls to omit suicide. When she walked into the Parliament with her blood-stained trousers, her colleagues expressed their displeasure and she was asked to leave. She was criticized by other MPs, including women senators. Senator Tabitha Mutinda thought that Orwoba was disrespectful and inappropriate. She asked the speaker during a plenary session if Orwoba had followed the dress code. “You don’t understand if she’s on the normal woman cycle or she’s faking it, and it is so indecent,” said Mutinda. Mutinda added that this was not setting a good example for girls and young women in Kenya. Defending herself, Orwoba said the blood stain was “an accident that is natural”. She added: “I have stained my clothes and at the end of the day I just want to know while we are discussing this issue that is not in the order paper, is it because senators are not women who have periods.
But her argument fell on deaf ears. Speaker Amason Kingi had asked Orwoba to leave. “Having periods is never a crime,” he said. Yet he directed her to leave and come back with clothes that are not stained. Orwoba left the senate building but refused to be shamed. With her stained clothes, she visited a school in Nairobi to distribute sanitary napkins to girls. However, she covered the period stain by tying a scarf. Orwoba has been campaigning to end the shame associated with menstruation and fight period poverty in Kenya. She has been behind a motion calling for an increase in government funding for free sanitary pads and hygiene products related to menstrual health in public schools in the country. As her stained trousers continued to be debated online, she took to Twitter to write: “I have warned all legislators in parliament against attempting to figure out my ovulation days!”
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