Reading Time: 2 minutesNominated Senator cum vocalist Crystal Asige has opted out of celebrating love this Valentine’s Day. Crystal asserted that this Valentine’s Day holds a sombre mood for her due to the recent cases of murder that undermine the importance of love, which is the focal point of Valentine’s Day.
Crystal Asige said, “This is Valentine’s Day, a time to celebrate love, romance and relationships, but this year, in the wake of hate crimes and brutal killings of women we have sadly seen love sharply overshadowed by fear, violence and death in Kenya,”
In her statement, Crystal Asige asserted that the red colour that’s associated with romance has unfortunately lost it’s meaning and it’s now associated with blood. She said, “This is Valentine’s Day, a time to celebrate love, romance and relationships, but this year, in the wake of hate crimes and brutal killings of women we have sadly seen love sharply overshadowed by fear, violence and death in Kenya.“Why is it that as women, our love and femininity are adorned and sought after by men, yet persecuted and oppressed in equal measure by the same men? Red used to be for love, but now it has turned into blood,”
Crystal has come out to stand against femicide in the country as a parliamentarian. She is set to perform at the University of Nairobi in memory of the women and girls who were murdered in the name of love. This will see most parliamentarians wearing black attire.
She stated,“I am standing in solidarity with all of the women we have loved and lost to femicide by leading women parliamentarians to wear black, raising a motion of adjournment in Parliament and hosting a vigil concert at UoN tonight in memory of them.I want to use my artistic side to make a strong statement and will be releasing a series of art-vism images and a brand new music video encouraging women to turn their scars into empowering stories. Today is a ‘Dark Valentine’.
The recent killings saw Kenyans condemning these acts and leaders called for the arrest of the culprits involved.The Government of Kenya has also committed to ending Gender based violence by 2026 as part of its co-leadership of the Generation Equality Action Coalition. If the numerous laws on GBV are enforced then such violence could reduce significantly.
The UN Women initiated several programmes that seek to train officers to recognize the signs of potential femicide as well as prevent gender-based violence through specialized training for police officers. The UN Women has trained over 600 officers from Kenya National Police Service and National Transport and Safety Authority in addition to members of the informal transport sector.
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