Bury the dead in your farms, cemeteries are full, public told

Kenya: From a distance, tens of wooden crosses transverse the vast ground covered with bushes and wreaths in equal proportions. On one end, a herd of cattle and donkeys feed on the rising bushes as a group of mongrel chase each other howling and barking.

In another corner a group of children play hide and seek, oblivious of the ‘smell of death.’ They scream, shout and play.

From nearby houses, parents continue with their household chores unperturbed that their children are playing inside a cemetery.

It is, however, a group of mourners carrying a coffin that stands out as it heads for a funeral service near a shallow grave dug hours earlier, where the deceased will be laid to rest.

After a quick service characterised by tears and wails, the coffin is lowered into the grave, which is hurriedly covered with soil. An hour after placing wreaths on the grave, a herd of waiting cattle moves in and consumes the freshly laid flowers.

This is the Naivasha public cemetery, which incidentally is filled up and workers are forced to dig up older graves to bury the dead.

‘Green lodge’

Unlike the past, when many feared visiting cemeteries, paths crisscross this public utility while some decide to take rests late in the afternoon. Stories of the cemetery being turned into a ‘green lodge’ have been reported, while at times drunkards have been spotted relaxing.

It is now emerging that major towns in the country have their public cemeteries filled up.

The fast growing population, poor planning and lack of land for more cemeteries have created a crisis.

According to Ms Jane Wambui, a resident of Kabati in Naivasha, the 20-acre cemetery that is not fenced has become a shame, with all manner of queer deals going on there. Wambui, who has lived in the estate for more than 20 years, tells of times when people feared walking or even pointing at graves. “These days you will find children playing around, couples having sex and sometimes when there is a mass burial a heavy stench covers this area,” she says.

In African culture, death, burial and graves have special places in the hearts of many and they are accorded respect among different communities.

Reports of families calling for harambees to raise cash to transport bodies from abroad so that the deceased can be given decent burial have emerged.

Billions of shillings

Kenyans use billions of shillings annually in burials, with relatives and friends keen to assist. The biggest challenge facing the country, however, is the limited burial places. Some communities are coy of selling their land to be converted into a cemetery.

A check across the country establishes that majority of the cemeteries are next to emerging estates, with many having filled up starting with Lang’ata in Nairobi. In Nakuru, there are two cemeteries - North and South, with many preferring the former, which is next to the Nairobi-Nakuru Highway.

In Kiambu, the cemetery borders Indian Bazaar estate, so is the Nyahururu one, popularly known as Siberia, which is surrounded by tens of homes.

In Lamu, the cemetery, which is not fenced, is located between the AP offices and the town centre, while in Gilgil, it is near Site Estate.

Nakuru County Government admits that the issue of land for cemetery in major towns is a big concern to the region.

The County Public Health Officer Samuel King’ori warns that in the coming years, it will be near impossible to get land for burying the dead.

“Many people do not want cemeteries near their farms and we fear that in 20 years there will be no public land to bury the dead”.

He says many residents are fearful of having a cemetery next to their farms, a move that has seen efforts to seek new land hit a wall.

“The country’s population is rising at an alarming rate, meaning more land is going to either housing estates or farming,” he says.

Mr King’ori says the county’s efforts to seek 50 and 30 acres cemetery land for Nakuru and Naivasha towns have borne little fruit.

He has expressed his concern over the status of public cemeteries in the county, noting that bodies are being buried in shallow graves to avoid exhuming previously buried ones.

“We are in the process of buying 50 acres in Nakuru and 30 acres in Naivasha, which will be used as cemetery land,” he said. He says plans are underway to introduce a by-law where unclaimed bodies will be cremated as the current mode of burying them in a mass gave is expensive. He says the County Public Health Bill is proposing the construction of a crematorium, where the unclaimed bodies will be disposed of.

High cost

He says due to the high cost of burying bodies, some families are abandoning their dead in mortuaries. “Currently, Nakuru Provincial General Hospital has 42 unclaimed bodies. Naivasha Sub-county Hospital has 16 while Gilgil has 15,” he says.

According to Nakuru County Assembly’s Implementation Committee Chairman Simon Wanyoike, many sun-counties are having a hard time in cemetery issues.

The Naivasha Lakeview MCA admits that earlier efforts to get burial land in Suswa faced various handicaps, with neighboring communities opposing the move. “In Naivasha, we had to seek the intervention from the ministry for compulsory acquisition, but this did not work,” he says.

He proposes that relatives maximise family land in burying their kin, as public cemeteries get filled up fast and sourcing alternative land has become nearly impossible.

Naivasha MP John Kihagi says the location of cemeteries across the country is a thorny issue and attributes the fast growth of towns to the problem experienced in many other towns.

Kihagi says with the high population growth rate, emerging estates are ‘swallowing’ burial sites, creating a crisis for many civic authorities.

He points to Nairobi, Thika, Naivasha, Nakuru and other major towns as some of the authorities currently feeling the heat.

Kihagi, who is also the secretary Kenya Institute of Planners, says lack of proper planning is another cause for the current crisis. 

“There is need to plan for the future where cemeteries should be pushed far away from town boundaries so that this can be avoided,” says the MP.