Africa-Press – Kenya. The president of Worldserve International, John Bongiorno has called on the country’s leadership to remove taxation on imported sanitary towels meant for the poor.
Bongiorno spoke at Isinya Day and Boarding Primary School in Kajiado. “We all need the money, the government needs the money to run its affairs and cater for the country’s needs, but taxing sanitary towels,” said Bongiorno.
The organisation’s president said the sanitary towels they bring to the country to help the poor girls in the arid zones of the country take only 60 days to disintegrate.
He called on Kajiado East MP, Kakuta Maimai, who was present to take the matter with his parliamentarians to implore the government to remove taxes on goods meant to alleviate the awkwardness among the poor Kenyans.
“We love Kenya, the people of Kenya too, and it is for this reason that the government should listen to us,” said the president MP Maimai said he will use his position in parliament to push for the demands made by Boingirno.
“We are grateful for the work of international NGOs being done in the country, and I have no business in parliament if I will not work with my colleagues to ask the government to stop such harmful taxations,” said Maimai.
Maimai, who was speaking at the function of unveiling a school borehole at Isinya Day and Boarding Primary School, said the Christ Fellowship Church through WorldServe International donated the project.
Pastors Todd and Julie Mullins of the American Christ Fellowship Church raised the money for the borehole project at the Isinya Primary School. In Isinya alone, according to Worldserve International (K) director, Rev David Kang’ethe, the organisation has sunk 16 boreholes.
Kang’ethe said since 2021, WorldServe Kenya has been trucking clean water to Isinya Primary School through the rapid water supply initiative. “Before this, the school depended on water vendors for clean water. They purchased 15,000 litres of water at 10,000 shillings,” he said.
This, he said, was too expensive and barely lasted the school a week. Lack of access to a reliable clean water source heavily impacted the health and safety of Isinya Primary School students and staff, he added.
“The students didn’t have enough water to maintain basic hygiene standards and this affected their health and well-being. Lack of adequate safe drinking water also resulted in dehydration, which affected the students’ concentration and learning ability,” Kang’the said.
The school’s headmaster, Jonathan Kotemu, said the school was established 62 years ago and has been spending millions of shillings in buying water. “We have been spending Sh8,000 per day for the 1,100 pupils we have in this school. There are 600 boarders in this school,” said Kotemo.
The school’s BOM chairman, Edwin Koitumet, a former pupil of the school, thanked the donors for the borehole, saying the school can now plant vegetables and trees for firewood.
The area deputy county commissioner Justus Musau, county government Director of Resources, Eng George Kimiti, community mobiliser Peninah Komu, and Evans Solitei addressed the function.
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