A Kenyan MP believes she has found the key to ending in-flight flatulence. By changing in-flight meals and improving cabin crew training, MP Lilian Gogo hopes to put an end to this apparently very common irritant.

The MP proposed a law to combat farting on planes

Rangwe MP Lilian Gogo argued that farting on planes causes "discomfort and insecurity on board". She proposed the introduction of a basic system to check the discomfort level that passengers are subjected to during long flights, reports Nairobi News.

The bizarre proposal came as Kenyan MPs were debating the adoption of the National Assembly Committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing report in July 2019. The report considered changes to certain acts and offenses committed aboard planes.

“There is one irritant that is often ignored and this is the level of farting within the aircraft. There are passengers, who literary irritate fellow passengers by passing bad smell and uncomfortable fart. If there is anyone given irritant that makes people fight on board, it is the fart, it is terrible within the plane,” Dr Gogo said.

Convinced that this is an irritant that required careful management to avoid causing insecurity on board, Dr Gogo insisted that there should be changes in the law to reflect that.

Training for the crew and a change of flight meals

Quoted by Nairobi News, Dr Gogo went on to propose solutions for the problem.

“We need special training on aircraft crew so that they provide medicines like bicarbonate of soda to passengers after meals and drinks have been served. We should also have paramedics, who are trained in basic first aid included in the international and local flights,” she said.

Changing in-flight meals could be a solution to the problem. Photo: Saschaporsche via Wikimedia

By reducing the level of gas that can lead to offensive emissions, Dr Gogo believes that the issue can be ameliorated. She also thinks that medication should be readily available on board in order to contain flatulence progressively.

“Farting is terrible in planes ... even in Kenya when you take a flight from Kisumu to Nairobi or Nairobi to Mombasa. If I am the only one who has experienced this then the rest of you are very lucky,” Dr Gogo argued.

The reaction to Dr Gogo's proposals

The proposals targeted both domestic and international flights. Photo: Nevit Dilmen via Wikimedia

Such a proposal was not going to pass unnoticed, and criticism quickly followed. The Star newspaper in Kenya mentioned that Dr Gogo's critics questioned her priorities as MP, while the transport committee chairman pointed out that her comments were rather useless because she presented them after the report was handed down.

It is not the first time someone brought up the problem of in-flight flatulence. In 2018, The Sun published a comprehensive article detailing how much fart is on a plane at any given time.