About 1 kilometre from the Nakuru Central Business District, lies a graveyard rich in history, yet few people pay a visit to see where hundreds of documented heroes from World War I silently lie.

The Nakuru North cemetery is sandwiched between the Nakuru-Nairobi Highway and the Nakuru Level Five Hospital, towards the leafy suburb of Milimani.

For long, the cemetery, which is Nakuru’s main graveyard, has been neglected and turned into a grazing field. The cemetery lacked a gate, basic amenities like toilets and clean water.

The cemetery has been an epitome of untidiness.

However, the Nakuru County government has embarked on a major refurbishment of the graveyard.

According to the Nakuru City Manager Gitau Thabanja, the county is refurbishing the graveyard to safeguard its rich history.

"We want to refurbish the graveyard and have it well maintained, with more trees, flowers and a perimeter fence,” said Mr Thabanja.

The county plans to put up a perimeter wall and conduct more renovations at the Nakuru North cemetery.

When this writer visited the Nakuru North cemetery yesterday, a group of youth had been hired to clear bushes within the cemetery including at the Commonwealth graveyards, located to the South of the burial ground.

“We have been tasked to clear bushes within the cemetery and soon we will begin putting up a perimeter fence around the cemetery. The cemetery will have only one gate,”said the casual worker identified as John Kimani.

The Nakuru North Cemetery was established in 1918, as a burial site for World War I soldiers.

Most of the First World War burials in Nakuru North Cemetery date from November 1918 and were made from the convalescent camps at Nakuru.

There have been 27 and 45 Commonwealth burials of World War I and World War II respectively.

The Nakuru North cemetery is also where prominent people including; Lord Egerton, who died on January 30,1958 is buried.

Other prominent people buried at the cemetery include; Veteran Nakuru politician Mark Mwithaga in August 2016 and Babu Wood, Nakuru’s first MP in 1976.

A number of freedom fighters and Nakuru tycoons are also buried here.

EMatara@ke.nationmedia.com

Cemetery Where World War 1 Heroes Lie

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Eric Matara