Kenyan women hold ‘Dark Valentine’ vigils

NAIROBI. – As people around the world marked Valentine’s Day on Wednesday with flowers and chocolate, Kenyan women were mourning.

Hundreds of them donned black outfits and held lit candles and red roses at a vigil in honour of more than 30 women who have been murdered in the country in 2024.

Wednesday’s vigil in Nairobi – which featured impassioned calls to action and musical performances – was organised by the End Femicide Kenya Movement, a collective of more than 1 000 organisations and individuals. “Dark Valentine” vigils were also held in six other cities amid rising cases of femicide, which have captured national attention.

“Flowers are not beautiful on a casket,” says a message in Swahili on a shirt worn by many of the mourners in Nairobi. The vigils aim to pressure the government to address the demands of the movement, which include declaring femicide and violence against women as a national emergency and establishing a commission to eliminate both.

Organisers say they planned the events on Valentine’s Day to draw attention to “the dark realities” of gender-based violence and women being killed by those they love.

“The tragic toll of women killed by their partners or family members [are] turned into sensationalised media headlines,” a statement from the movement reads.

According to End Femicide Kenya, responses to these murders by authorities and politicians “focus [on] victim blaming” and are “filled with misinformed advice urging women to be careful not to meet with strangers”.