Kenyan Lilian Seenoi-Barr makes history as first Black mayor in Northern Ireland

In a first for a Black person, Kenyan Lilian Seenoi-Barr on Monday received the mayoral chain of office becoming the mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council in the United Kingdom’s Northern Ireland.

Seenoi-Barr was in April selected by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) to become the next Derry mayor.

Ahead of the handing-over ceremony, she told the BBC in an interview that she arrived in Derry City as a refugee 14 years ago.

“It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, something you don't prepare for. I am delighted that I have been given the opportunity to serve my community. Derry has given me so much. A family, a husband and a place I call home," she said.

Seenoi-Barr became Northern Ireland's first Black mayor and only the third on the island of Ireland, according to the British public broadcaster.

Seenoi-Barr is from Mau Narok in Nakuru County and is a sister to Narok Senator Ledama Olekina.

Olekina and their other three siblings attended the swearing-in ceremony at Guildhall in Dery, alongside a raft of other Kenyan politicians among them Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna.

Sifuna on Monday afternoon shared a photo with Seenoi-Barr and the outgoing Mayor of Derry Patricia Logue ahead of the event, terming it “a proud moment for Kenya.”

While her selection was criticised by some SDLP members as undemocratic, Seenoi-Barr in April defended it as being open.

At the time, she said that she would be “a mayor for everyone and represent every single voice.”

Seenoi-Barr has previously made history after being elected councillor of the Foyleside area of Derry and Strabane Council in Northern Ireland in May last year.

She describes herself as a community development practitioner and social justice advocate.

Seenoi-Barr is the founder of the North West Migrants Forum, which supports, advises and cares for Black and ethnic minority groups living in the North-west region of Northern Ireland.

According to her professional profile, she is an alumnus of the University of Ulster and has also been involved with Maasai women’s and girls’ rights causes back home in Kenya by rescuing young girls from early forced marriage and female genital mutilation.