Pads debacle: Senator Gloria Orwoba contemplates quitting Twitter

Nominated Senator Gloria Orwoba outside the Senate chambers in Nairobi. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

Nominated Senator Gloria Orwoba says she's contemplating leaving social media platform Twitter, over cyber-bullying threats.

Orwoba was on Tuesday kicked out of Senate for an inappropriate dress code. The legislator showed up at Senate chambers in stained white trousers, advocating for free sanitary towels to schools.

The action would send social media into a frenzy, receiving support and backlash in equal measure.

In an interview with Hot 96 FM on Thursday, the nominated Senator said she had received some 'nasty' comments and was vilified for the act that may push her to quit Twitter.

"This thing of having thick skin is not for the faint-hearted. In fact, I am really contemplating leaving Twitter...that whole cyber-bullying has gotten to me. It's intense and it gets to you," Orwoba said.

"The debate was going well before I was kicked out. It was the issue of wanting to get me out of the house that became a bigger conversation."

Senate Speaker Amason Kingi, explaining why he chose to send Orwoba home, said getting menstruation periods was not a crime, but in how she handled the situation.

"I am not asking you to leave because you are out of order...I am asking you to leave so that you go change and come back with a cloth that is not stained," Kingi said.

Following the furor on Twitter that afternoon, Orwoba would talk to friend and fellow legislator Karen Nyamu for advice, Nyamu has previously been on Kenyans on Twitter (KOT's) chopping board on several occasions.

"I was talking to my friend Senator Nyamu and she told me, the moment you boldly cross to the other side, no one can dare talk back online."

Coincidentally, Nyamu was also kicked out of Senate proceedings on the same day over inappropriate dressing. She had shown up to the House business in a sleeveless black top.

The nominated Senator is not the first Kenyan politician to dread Twitter and call it quits, owing to Kenyans' antics as the "bulldogs" of the platform. KOT will run you down, tear you into shreds, and have you for dinner. Ask CNN, South Africa, Nigeria, or Uganda.

Other prominent politicians who have quit Twitter include former President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i.