Kenyan comedian and content creator Crazy Kennar and his partner, Natalie Asewe, have announced the birth of their baby girl.
The joyful news, shared on social media, has been met with an outpouring of love from fans and fellow celebrities.
Their announcement was particularly poignant as, through a joint Instagram post, they used the term “rainbow baby” in the caption, a phrase that carries deep emotional significance for the couple.
The Origin and Meaning of “Rainbow Baby”
The term “rainbow baby” appears to have entered the lexicon and gained more widespread recognition and usage in recent decades, particularly with the rise of online communities and social media.
While the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) first published an entry for “rainbow baby” in 2018, their earliest evidence for its use dates back to 1972, in the Tucson Daily Citizen (Tucson, Arizona).
Its popularity has significantly grown in the 21st century, amplified by blogs, social media, and support forums where parents share their stories of loss and renewal.
It offers a powerful and widely understood metaphor for hope and healing after the “storm” of miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant loss.
The phrase “rainbow baby” is a deeply symbolic and widely understood term within a community of parents who have experienced loss.
It refers to a baby born after a previous miscarriage, stillbirth, or neonatal death.
The name draws on the metaphor of a rainbow appearing after a storm: The “storm” represents the sadness, grief, and emotional turmoil following the loss of a child.
The “rainbow” symbolises the new baby, who brings a ray of hope, beauty, and light into their parents’ lives after a difficult period.
A rainbow baby is not meant to replace the child who was lost, but rather to be a celebration of a new life and a testament to the parents’ resilience.
The term acknowledges the pain of the past while looking forward to a brighter future.
From Heartbreak to Hope
In the shared post, Natalie described their newborn daughter as “Handpicked for earth by her brother in heaven,” with the hashtag #rainbowbaby.
The post quickly gained over 130,543 likes and thousands of congratulatory comments from well-wishers, including popular figures in the Kenyan entertainment industry.
This new beginning comes after a period of profound grief for the couple. In December 2023, Crazy Kennar revealed during his “Happy Country” show at KICC that he and Natalie had tragically lost their firstborn son just a few days before the event.
Natalie later shared a moving tribute to their late son on her Instagram page.
“I don’t just grieve my son, I mourn never getting the chance to hear him cry, to hear him speak, teach him to walk and see him grow,” she wrote in the heartfelt post.
The couple’s bravery in sharing their experience made their announcement of a new baby all the more powerful.
The term “rainbow baby” provides a way for parents to express the joy of a new child while still honouring the memory of the one they lost.
by moses sagwe
