How a Sanitary Pad Factory Is Rewriting Public Health, Dignity and Local Industry in Homa Bay

By Kepher Otieno - Reporter

Kenya, 30 January 2026 - The launch of Homa Bay County’s first sanitary pad manufacturing plant in Kasgunga, Suba North, is more than a ribbon-cutting ceremony—it is a quiet but consequential public health intervention with ripple effects across education, gender equality, and local economic resilience.

For decades, menstrual health in many parts of Kenya has been treated as a peripheral welfare issue, addressed through sporadic donations and emergency relief. The inauguration of the Galentine Care Sanitary Pads Factory signals a deliberate shift from charity to systems-building: local production, local jobs, and sustained access to menstrual hygiene products. In public health terms, that shift matters.

Menstrual poverty remains a stubborn barrier to girls’ education and women’s productivity, particularly in rural and fishing communities like Suba North, where household incomes are often unstable. The absence of affordable sanitary products has translated into missed school days, heightened risk of infections from unsafe alternatives, and a lingering culture of shame around menstruation. By anchoring production at the community level, Galentine Care reframes menstrual health as essential infrastructure—no different from clean water or primary healthcare.

Governor Gladys Wanga’s presence at the launch underscored the county’s intent to integrate social manufacturing into its development agenda. Her framing of the factory as both an investment-ready venture and a social good reflects a growing policy recognition that public health outcomes are inseparable from economic structures.

When counties support enterprises that meet everyday health needs, they reduce long-term social costs—from school dropouts to preventable reproductive health complications.

At the heart of the project is a practical innovation: the Galentine Care Pad, marketed as ultra-thin, soft, and leak-free. While product features may sound commercial, their public health significance is real. Comfort, reliability, and discretion are not luxuries; they determine whether women and girls consistently use safe menstrual products or revert to risky substitutes. Quality, therefore, becomes a health safeguard.

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Founder Peter Omondi McOdida’s emphasis on affordability and accessibility speaks to a deeper challenge in Kenya’s menstrual health landscape—the dominance of imported products whose prices fluctuate with supply chains and currency pressures. Local manufacturing reduces those vulnerabilities while opening space for community-tailored distribution models, including partnerships with schools, health centres, and grassroots women’s groups.

Politically, the factory’s location in Suba North is also symbolic. Area MP Millie Mabona’s remarks positioned the plant as a corrective to long-standing marginalisation, where rural constituencies often consume what they do not produce.

Here, Suba North becomes a source, not just a market. That reversal carries both economic and psychological weight: dignity is reinforced not only through access to pads, but through participation in their production.

The employment implications are equally significant. Manufacturing jobs—especially those accessible to women—have multiplier effects on household nutrition, school retention, and community health-seeking behaviour. Ancillary businesses, from transport to retail, are likely to follow. In a county grappling with youth unemployment and limited industrial presence, even modest factories can recalibrate local economies.

Nationally, the Galentine Care model aligns with Kenya’s broader push for value addition and local sourcing. But its sharper edge lies in how it collapses the false divide between industry and welfare. Menstrual health is not just a “women’s issue”; it is an education issue, a labour issue, and a public health issue. Every pad produced locally is a small reduction in inequality.

As the factory begins operations and products roll out across Homa Bay and neighbouring counties, the real test will be sustainability—consistent quality, fair pricing, and integration into public health and education programmes. If those pieces hold, Kasgunga’s new factory may well become a template for how counties can tackle intimate, everyday health challenges with industrial-scale solutions.

In that sense, this launch is not just about sanitary pads. It is about redefining what development looks like when dignity, health, and economics sit on the same production line.