Gov't Orders Kenyan Employers to Set Up Breastfeeding Stations for Lactating Workers

The government wants all employers in the country to set up breastfeeding stations to allow lactating mothers feed their babies at work places.

Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki has said that all employers must set up the stations as required by the Health Act that was enacted last year. The minister further said the nursing workers must also be given breaks to feed their babies.
 
“I also call upon all employers and stakeholders to prioritize establishment of lactation stations in their workplace and to provide for breaks for nursing employees as is within the law,” said CS Kariuki when she launched the International Breastfeeding Week in Kenya at Pumwani Maternity Hospital.

To lead from the front, Kariuki ordered for immediate setting up of a lactation station at the Health Ministry headquarters in Nairobi.

“As the government, we will continue to invest in free maternity programme because so far through this initiative, we have settled bills of over one million mothers with maternity bills,” she said.

“No mother or child should die because of our being careless and failing to invest in the most obvious places. We have to invest in equipment, infrastructure, human resource and drugs in this country.”