Hildah, 24, was out with her friends one night when one of them, who has a light complexion, started criticising a girl walking by because she was dark.
“When she realised I was there, she said I was different because I was beautiful even though I was dark,” she said.
On a separate occasion, another friend made a similar comment, stating one of her sisters thought Hildah was her favourite friend because she was “pretty despite being dark”.
Next was a boda boda rider who was trying to make advances at her.
“I was in campus and it was around 7.30 pm,” she said. “He came running towards me then stood in front of me and said, ‘Ah, nlikuwa nimedhani ni mrembo, kumbe si mweupe (I thought she is beautiful but she is not light-skinned)’.”
She has had to endure comments like this for as long as she can remember.
“I started really noticing it when I was in high school, but it was there way before. When I was a kid, I remember people would always say how pretty my cousins were and I was the smart one,” she said.
Hildah’s mother has a light complexion, and when she would come to school for meetings, people would always compare them.
“They would always tell me how I’d be much prettier if I was light in complexion. This one girl once told me if I was as light as my mum, I would have been beautiful,” she said.
Hildah says she has had to listen to girls describing beautiful girls as being light as a major factor.
“At some point, I felt ugly and I would start considering bleaching my skin because hearing comments like those all your life eventually gets to you,” she said.
“But my mum, she tells me I am beautiful despite what anyone’s standard of beauty is.”