Every 13 June, and whatever else the year asks for. A procession, a pitch, a runway, a stage, and a crowd that came because it wanted to.
Why we celebrate
A festival puts a different picture in the same public square, and it lets people attend the argument rather than read it. Music, fashion, sport, food, and a microphone handed to the person who is usually described instead of asked.
Everything else we do across the year is easier afterwards, because thousands of people have already met us on a good day.
The runway
The festivals began in 2022. The runway arrived in the second year, as part of Catwalks for Climate Advocacy, and has been the heart of the day ever since. A category is a claim about where persons with albinism belong, worn rather than written.
Long sleeves, wide brims, closed weaves and a high collar, cut so that nobody has to choose between covering their skin and looking like they want to be seen. The most practical category on the card, and the one the audience did not expect to applaud.
The category the whole 2023 campaign was built around. Climate action worn rather than argued, on a day about skin that a hotter sun is already damaging.
Our own cloth on our own bodies. It answers a quiet assumption that albinism sits outside African identity rather than inside it.
Designers and tailors who want to dress a category, and members who want to walk one, are both welcome. The call opens in the spring.
The record
Pick a year.
Celebrating all skin tones through movement, strength and inclusion
Nairobi CBD to Alpha Fitness, Ngong Road
A body that has to hide from the middle of the day still has to be moved. The day ran from six in the morning to one in the afternoon and was built around three things and a fair.
From the Nairobi CBD out to Alpha Fitness on Ngong Road, led by a partnering walking club. A public, visible declaration that this community takes up space in the city.
An hour facilitated at Alpha Fitness, adapted for every ability and fitness level, followed by a guided cool down.
Amateur powerlifting: deadlift, squat, bench press, pull ups and push ups. Open to persons with albinism, persons with disabilities and the general public, with medals and cash prizes.
Free skin cancer screening with UV guidance, NCPWD disability registration on site, an IEBC voter registration desk, skincare and fashion vendors, music and refreshments.
6 photographs from the 2026 edition.
The year albinism was named in Kenyan law
Nairobi, with Baraza Media Lab
The Persons with Disabilities Act, 2025 recognises albinism as a disability for the first time. That changes what a person can claim and what an institution owes them, so the day was built to explain it and to deal with the health question the law does not touch.
A townhall and question session on how the Act defines albinism, what it entitles a person to across health, employment, education and identity documents, and how to register with the NCPWD and claim it.
Three moderated conversations: parents caring for children with albinism, women and skin care, and men and skin care. Recorded and cut into clips so the day kept working after it ended.
Short films on sunscreen, protective clothing and UV routines, with real testimonials, in English, Kiswahili and Kenyan Sign Language where it applied.
9 photographs from the 2025 edition.
A decade of the day, taken stock of in public
Nairobi
Ten years since the United Nations named the day. The edition asked the uncomfortable half of that: what a decade had changed, and what it had not.
15 photographs from the 2024 edition.
Imagine. Create. Take action.
Launched 10 June in Machakos County
Two things that look unrelated until you have albinism: a sun getting stronger, and the right to be looked at on your own terms. The campaign put climate action into fashion, and it is the edition that gave us the runway.
The day opened on foot and in public, which is how every one of these days has opened since.
The launch was followed by tree planting drives in five counties: Kajiado, Kitui, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kiambu.
Three categories, and the first time the runway appeared at all.
9 photographs from the 2023 edition.
United in making our voice heard
A procession from Shauri Moyo into City Stadium, Nairobi
The first one. A procession walked through Nairobi to make the case for the political participation of persons with disabilities, then walked back into City Stadium for a tournament that ran from half past eight until three.
A football tournament with Lion Stars FC as guest team, and a visiting side from Tanzania: a football team of persons with albinism who travelled to play. We also played the Short Stature Society of Kenya, who have a team of their own.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission came and made the case directly for the political participation of persons with disabilities. A person who is welcome on a pitch is a person expected in the room where decisions are made.
Because a tournament that does not end in a trophy is a training session.
9 photographs from the 2022 edition.
What is next
The sixth edition · 13 June 2027
We are bringing the festival to Garissa County in 2027, because that is where the work is. From Womb to Community is running there now, and the celebration follows the work rather than the other way round.
The theme is not set. It is chosen with the community rather than announced to it, and this page carries it as soon as it is.
