The department of public health in Nakuru has been asked to rehabilitate Longonot public cemetery by constructing a latrine and fencing it.
Leaders said it is the only facility opened to the public but it had been neglected and was attracting wild animals from the nearby Mt Longonot National Park.
Last year, the traders protested after wild animals tried to exhume unclaimed bodies buried in the cemetery.
The cemetery in Naivasha filled up three years ago and the public has been using the one in Longonot which is located next to a hospital and residential houses.
Local leader Antony Kibe said the cemetery is in a poor state.
He said that the community had on several occasions raised the issue of a washroom with the county but this had not been addressed.
“Mourners openly defecate in the open due to lack of a public toilet and thus the need to urgently address this issue,” he said on Friday.
Another area resident Mary Karanja said that wild animals mainly hyenas had found a home in the cemetery as they sought food left behind by the mourners.
She said that the cemetery should be fenced adding that there were fears that the wild animals could exhume bodies.
“Last year some wild animals tried to exhume some of the unclaimed bodies that had been buried in a mass grave and this left us in great fear,” she said.
An officer from the department of public health and who is not authorized to speak to the press said that the issue of fencing and constructing a toilet had been raised with their bosses.
“We have on several occasions raised the issue of rehabilitating the cemetery as it’s the only one operational and we are waiting for funds for the exercise,” said the officer.
Earlier, the chief officer in charge of public health in Nakuru Samuel King’ori said that it was becoming hard to get land for a cemetery.
King’ori said Gilgil, Subukia and Elburgon towns will in the coming months face cemetery challenges due to limited space.
“Naivasha cemetery was the first to fill up and three years down the line no one is willing to sell their land to the county further worsening the situation,” he said.
