According to reports, a Kenyan senator was expelled from the legislature after showing up to a meeting wearing a white suit that had been intentionally stained red as part of an alleged menstruation activism effort.
In an effort to combat period poverty, Gloria Orwoba of the ruling coalition is scheduled to introduce a motion on Wednesday regarding a law that would offer free sanitary pads.
In order to call the Speaker’s attention to Ms. Orwoba’s “inappropriate dress code,” senators reportedly halted Tuesday’s afternoon session.
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.”
The senator had to go change her clothes before being allowed back into the rooms, according to Speaker Amason Kingi.
“Having periods is never a crime… Senator Gloria, I sympathize 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 BBC quoted speaker in a report.
Outside the chambers, Senator Orwoba confirmed the report to journalists saying “unfortunately I have been kicked out because I’m on my period and we are not supposed to show our period when we are on our period and that is the kind of period stigma girls and women are having outside…”
