Cattle graze at Lang’ata cemetery /FILE
The current tiff between the Ministry of Health and the Nairobi government over the Lang’ata cemetery is not the first controversy that has rocked the public interment facility.
From being turned into a disposal site for human waste by a rogue developer in 2020 to its current concerns of serious health risks it poses to the city, the dead in Lang’ata have not known peace.
Declared full in early 2000s by the defunct Nairobi City Council, the cemetery is yet to be closed hence, the current stacking of bodies in shallow graves.
Last week, Public Health Principal Secretary Mary Muthoni told a Parliamentary caucus that it is time City Hall closed the cemetery and found alternative ground.
“Nairobi County must ensure all operations at Lang’ata Cemetery follow public health standards to avoid disease outbreaks, pollution, and community distress. We recommend immediate reclamation of the land beside the cemetery. The county should secure proper documentation and use it for cemetery expansion,” she said.
But City Hall reacted quickly, rejecting the intervention of the PS, saying issues about the cemetery are devolved; hence, only the county can order its closure.
“Lang’ata Cemetery is a county facility. The county will issue a statement soon,” said Nairobi public health chief officer Tom Nyakaba.
Health committee chairperson Maurice Ochieng said a procedure must be followed before it is closed.
“You cannot just wake up and say we are closing the cemetery. The procedure is that we must have an alternative for these people,” Ochieng, who is also the Mountain View MCA, said.
Up to 30 burials take place at the facility weekly.
Other places available for public burials in Nairobi include Nairobi South Cemetery along the Uhuru Highway near Nyayo Stadium, Kariokor Christian Cemetery, which is close to the Muslim Cemetery, Pangani Cemetery, and the civic cemetery along Forest Road Cemetery.
In 2016, a developer dug a wide trench in the 150-acre graveyard, ripping through several graves, as he sought to dispose of raw sewage from a nearby estate, triggering panic in the neighbouring community.
The activity saw various body parts and coffins exposed from the dug graves. Then Evans Kidero administration vowed to sue the developer, but the matter never took off.
There have been unsuccessful efforts to close down the facility and find an alternative for Nairobians.
In 2021, the defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services and the Kenya Forest Service were negotiating on acquiring new cemetery land next to Langata. Authorities are now considering shifting the public graveyard to Kangundo.
However, the concern by the county officials was that with KFS, there will be a requirement to plant many trees to replace the ones felled and that may be expensive.
Yet another controversy that has rocked the graveyard was the 2009 Sh238 million scandal. City Hall allegedly paid Sh283 million for 48.5 acres in Mavoko, Machakos county, a move that turned irregular.
The land was valued at Sh24 million. Former Local Government PS Sammy Kirui and former City Council of Nairobi Clerk John Gakuo were among officials jailed for three years for their role in the cemetery land scandal. Kirui was later acquitted, while Gakuo died while waiting to be freed on bond.
In the 2016-17 financial year budget, the county expressed an interest in acquiring cemetery land in Kajiado, but that turned out to be a costly venture.
In March 2017, it wanted to petition Parliament to allow it use as a graveyard in the 67-acre forest near the filled-up Lang’ata Cemetery.
This was after KFS rejected its request to swap the filled-up cemetery with the forest.
KFS had said the government allocated the old Nairobi City Council 50 acres in the 1990s to expand the cemetery. It had asked City Hall to account for the land.
Even though city hall maintains firm claim over the cemetery on account of devolution, there is need to pay heed to the health risk warning given by the MOH PS.