Kenyan entrepreneur and content creator Cashmeer Sayyid has apologised to guests after revealing that her much-publicised wedding was not a real marriage, but a calculated marketing campaign to launch her educational venture, the Bollington Institute.
The lavish event, attended by friends, family, and fellow influencers, was presented as a genuine marriage ceremony. However, Cashmeer later disclosed that it was a symbolic act meant to highlight the urgent issue of child marriage and exploitation in Kenya.
“It starts with a choice, a choice to put your kids through school not a wedding dress, but a school uniform. Let’s end child marriage,” she wrote during the unveiling of the institute.
Speaking on Tuesday amid public backlash, the trained software engineer explained that she intended to “push the agenda of underage marriage” through a creative storytelling approach. Guests believed she was marrying a Congolese man, referred to as Mkongo, but Cashmeer said the character was part of a crafted narrative linking child slavery in Congo and child exploitation in Kenya’s Maai Mahiu region, as exposed in a recent BBC Africa investigation.
While her unconventional method drew criticism from attendees who felt deceived, Cashmeer defended her approach as a bold awareness-raising tactic. “Many of my guests felt cheated, but this was a symbolic marriage for me,” she said.
The issue she sought to spotlight remains pressing. According to UNICEF, 23% of Kenyan girls are married before the age of 18, with 4% married before 15. Though this represents a modest decline from 26.4% in 2008, progress remains slow. In the Coast region, child marriage affects 41% of girls second only to the North Eastern region driven by poverty, limited education, and cultural practices like female genital mutilation (FGM).
“Behind closed doors, in the shadows of our towns, children are being robbed of their innocence,” Cashmeer had warned prior to the campaign. “The child sex trade is real, and it’s destroying lives. We cannot stay silent while our daughters are sold.”
Despite the uproar, her stunt has sparked a nationwide conversation about child exploitation, its root causes, and the urgent need for collective action.
