A schoolgirl in Kenya has taken her own life after allegedly being shamed in class for having her period and staining her uniform.
The 14-year-old’s mother said her daughter hanged herself after being humiliated by a teacher, Kenyan media reported.
Police used tear gas to disperse a crowd of about 200 parents protesting outside the school, reports said.
Kenya passed a law in 2017 to provide free sanitary towels for schoolgirls.
However, a parliamentary committee is currently investigating why the programme is yet to be rolled out across all schools.
The girl’s mother said a teacher had called her “dirty” for soiling her uniform and ordered her to leave the class in Kabiangek, west of the capital Nairobi, last Friday.
“She had nothing to use as a pad. When the blood stained her clothes, she was told to leave the classroom and stand outside,” the mother was quoted as saying in Kenyan media.
She said her daughter came home and told her mother what had happened, but then when she went to fetch water she took her own life.
