Kenyans may have missed out on another day off on Monday as the Hindu Community kickstarted the annual Diwali festival but this might change in the future following calls to have the religious festival recognized as a public holiday.
Chairman of the Hindu Council of Kenya Kamal Gupta on Monday said they had appealed to the government to make Diwali a national holiday in the future. He said the declaration would grant the Hindu community a great sense of recognition as an integral part of the country.
“As a Hindu community, we pray that this will be considered as a national day to ensure that the community also feels that great recognition and I’m sure that one day our country and leadership will accept our prayer,” Gupta said in an interview on KBC TV.
This comes after the government was forced to dismiss a fake public notice gazetting Monday, October 24, as a public holiday.
The Interior Ministry urged Kenyans to ignore the gazette notice.
“Our attention has been drawn to a purported Gazette notice issued by @InteriorKE declaring Monday 24th October 2022 a public holiday. Members of the public are advised that this is FAKE notice that should be ignored,” the ministry said.
The Kenyan law states that the five-day ‘Festival of Lights’ may “in every year be public holidays for all persons belonging to the Hindu faith”, and not all Kenyans.
