Eight counties get Sh2.8bn for menstrual hygiene drive

Pupils of Ombeyi Primary School in Kisumu County excited after receiving sanitary towels from a donor. Eight counties in the lake region have received funds to promote sanitation and menstrual health.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • The five-year partnership will create a financially sustainable, transformative, replicable and locally owned sanitation and menstrual hygiene marketplace.
  • USAID said the collaboration will strengthen market-based sanitation and menstrual health management. He said choosing the eight counties was intentional and informed by several factors.

Eight counties in the Lake Region Economic Bloc (Lreb) are set to benefit from a Sh2.8 billion deal with USAID to address hygiene challenges.

The selected counties are Bungoma, Busia, Homa Bay, Kakamega, Kisii, Kisumu, Migori and Siaya.

Lreb, however, consists of 14 counties. The others are Nyamira, Kericho, Nandi, Vihiga, Bomet and Trans Nzoia.

The five-year partnership will create a financially sustainable, transformative, replicable and locally owned sanitation and menstrual hygiene marketplace.

USAID Western Kenya Sanitation Project chief of party Paul Orengoh said the collaboration will strengthen market-based sanitation and menstrual health management. He said choosing the eight counties was intentional and informed by several factors.

Health concerns

Each of the eight counties faces myriad sanitation challenges that undermine residents’ health. Factors considered included similarities of geographical and cultural features that prompt the impacts of sanitation and menstrual hygiene management interventions, or lack of interventions, to permeate across the region.

Mr Orengoh, therefore, said their aim is to ensure intervention in one county is not impeded by a lack of interventions in the nearest county. He spoke during a workshop organised by USAID at Ciala Resort in Kisumu.

Speaking at the same event, Kisumu Governor Anyang’ Nyong'o said sanitation management has over the years posed a big challenge in the region, resulting in serious public health concerns.

"The project we are launching today aims at strengthening dialogue between the counties and the private sector to enhance access to improved sanitation and menstrual hygiene in the respective counties and establish, build stronger partnerships among partners," said Prof Nyong'o.

He noted that poor sanitation in Kenya has major health, economic and social impacts, especially on women and children. According to a recent report by the World Bank Sanitation programme, poor sanitation costs Sh27 billion each year.

"It shows that 21 million Kenyans use unsanitary or shared latrines. And that 5.6 million of our population have no latrine at all and defaecate in the open," said Prof Nyong'o.

"I am confident we will use this meeting to benchmark, share challenges in our counties and craft a way forward while working in close partnership with USAID."

Open defaecation

In Kisumu City, 55 per cent of residents have access to improved sanitation, with the majority being in the central business district.

"However, the reality is that quality of sanitation services remain inadequate and further investment in the rural sanitation sector is needed, hence our excitement to work with USAID," he said.

Governor Nyong'o said there's a need to scale up campaigns against open defaecation by promoting behaviour change towards prevalence of ‘bora choo’ mindset.

"In other communities not practising open defaecation, a market-based sanitation approach needs to be implemented to support households refrain from open defaecation and gain access to basic sanitation services," he said.

“Our strategy includes moving up the sanitation ladder to basic to help sustain and fully achieve open defecation free in the County by applying market-based sanitation.”