Kenya fights deadly stigma with albino beauty pageant

Nairobi. In many parts of Africa albinos are stigmatised or hunted for their body parts, but for one night in Kenya those with the condition took to the catwalk to show off their unique beauty.

Billed by organisers as the first pageant of its kind, young albino men and women on Friday competed for the title of Miss and Mr Albinism Kenya.

“People with albinism are not seen as beautiful and handsome so it is very rare to find those two words in the same sentence,” said Isaac Mwaura, Kenya’s first albino lawmaker and organiser of the pageant.

“We want to show our talent, we want to confront stigma and discrimination, we want to change our narrative to show that actually, yes it is possible to have people with albinism who are beautiful, who are confident,” he told AFP.

Albinism is a genetic condition that results in a reduction of pigment in the hair, skin, and eyes, and can also affect vision.

“In Africa people are dark. When someone white is brought into the family, when a mother delivers a baby with albinism they say it is a curse,” said Nancy Njeri Kariuki, 24, from central Kenya, who took part in the pageant.

“There are a lot of challenges, even your fellow children when you are young they are so scared of you.” However Kariuki, with a brown wig and sparkling green eyes, bursts with confidence as she struts her stuff on the stage in front of a crowd including Deputy President William Ruto. Contestants dress up as their chosen profession -- fisherman, cook, a female rugby player and a soldier -- in one segment to highlight that they too can be part of the workforce.

Educating and finding employment for people with albinism is still a massive challenge, says Mwuara.

Sarah Wanjohi, 21 -- who dresses up as what she is, the only albino skateboarder she knows -- wants Kenyans to learn “that we are beautiful ... we can love, we can catwalk ... we can do what we are perceived not to do.

“It has been very hard for me, you know skateboarders don’t wear heels and stuff.”

The models, chosen in a countrywide selection process, were put through a gruelling bootcamp to teach them how to walk and put on a show.

Michael Ogochi, 21 , said the process worked wonders for his self-confidence. (AFP)