In Kenya, flower vendors went all out to offer a variety of products to mark Valentine’s Day.
At Nairobi’s City market the last-minute rush to pack, sell and buy was clear all day on Saturday.
The country’s flower industry, which is witnessing a rebound after last year’s lockdown, was hoping for a better year in its European sales.
Europe accounts for nearly 70% of Kenya’s cut flower exports. Coronavirus restrictions had, however, slashed daily orders by half, threatening thousands of jobs in the country.
A flower vendor in Nairobi, Susan, says, “Valentine’s is very bad. There are no customers. People are not spending, since COVID-19 came. Our sales dipped significantly.”
Hilda, another flower vendor, agrees that business hasn’t been good.
“Things are bad. This Valentine’s and last are the worst. Look, the sellers are more than the buyers. Our economy has been destroyed by the coronavirus.”
A different kind of expression of love
Environmental activists in Nairobi, expressed their love differently.
Along the city’s Uhuru Highway, they tied love hearts and posters to protest the impending cutting down of at least 200 trees in Nairobi to pave the way for an expressway across the Kenyan capital.
The activists decried the diminishing green spaces in Kenya and called on the Kenyan government to reconsider the decision to chop down the trees.
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