Burial crisis is looming in Nakuru County as most public cemeteries in the 11 sub-counties have filled up.
Efforts by the county government to seek alternative land for the cemeteries have proved futile due to either
unavailability of land or unwillingness by land owners to sell.
According to the Chief Officer in charge of Public Health, Samuel King’ori Gilgil, Subukia and Elburgon sub-counties are the most recent areas to be hit by the crisis with efforts by the county government to acquire land for public cemetery failing.
King’ori said the county has now been forced to extend an expression of interest advert in the hope that they will get an appropriate land in the sub-counties.
This comes even as the county failed on three occasions to get cemetery land in Naivasha sub-county after the local graveyard filled up three years ago.
Land subdivisions and a sharp rise in land prices have been blamed for the current crisis with cemeteries in Nakuru town, Molo and Naivasha already filled up.
On Naivasha, he admitted that it had become impossible to get the required land forcing area residents to use Longonot or Gilgil cemeteries.
Meanwhile, services at Naivasha sub-county hospital mortuary have been over-stretched due to the rising number of unclaimed bodies.
There are currently twenty unclaimed bodies in the facility that has a capacity of twelve leading to a crisis as the
department of public health moves in to address the issue.
King’ori however, said his office is seeking a court order to dispose the bodies that have not been claimed for the last three months.
By Esther Mwangi/Hannah Wangui
