Mombasa county has three public cemeteries: Manyimbo, Mbaraki and Makaburini public cemeteries.
Mbaraki takes up seven acres, Manyimbo has 20 acres but the county uses about five acres, and Makaburini has five acres.
Various religious groups also have their privately owned cemeteries, including Bakarani, Kikowani and Sargoi.
Most of the cemeteries are exhausted in terms of space but are well-maintained.
“The immediate challenge we are facing is how to dispose of bodies that are unclaimed. These are many,” county secretary Francis Thoya said.
The county receives requests from public health facilities like the Coast General Hospital, which usually want the county to dispose of unclaimed bodies.
“We normally receive requests, after every two months, of between 30-40 bodies that are unclaimed that need to be disposed of,” Thoya said.
The unclaimed bodies, which health practitioners say take up a lot of space in the health facilities, are usually disposed of in mass graves.
According to regulations, every public cemetery must have space for mass graves to cater for emergencies and in case of disasters.
Currently, only Manyimbo public cemetery has some space left for mass graves.
“We are encouraging people to go through private graveyards. We believe most of these areas (private cemeteries) still have space,” Thoya said.
Most families that bury their loved ones in public cemeteries are non-Muslims, he said.
But this is also not frequent today, according to undertaker Nassor Mkala, who has worked in the cemeteries for about 25 years.
Mkala said on average today, they receive about two to three requests for burial in a month.
Most of the people living in Mombasa take the bodies of their loved ones for burial upcountry.
“Only those who cannot afford the transportation costs bury them here,” said Mkala’s counterpart Ramadhan Abdalla.
GRAVE FEES
A temporary grave costs Sh1,300, while a permanent one costs Sh25,000.
Mkala said though there is no more space at the Mbaraki cemetery, they usually find reserve spaces left by the Europeans who managed the
cemeteries pre-Independence.
The Mbaraki cemetery, for instance, has a section dedicated for World War II veterans.
“Some of the Europeans wanted their family members to be buried next to each other so they usually left some space between one grave and
the next to cater for their next family member who dies. We are the ones who know where these spaces are,” said Mkala.
Abdalla said Mbaraki cemetery has been divided into Catholic, Protestant, Israeli and War graves.
The Catholic graves, where mostly European Catholic families bury their loved ones, has unique requests.
“Most of the time, the family members request to be buried where their other family members have been buried,” said Abdalla.
For example, Abdalla said, one requests that when they die they be buried in the same grave their mother was buried in, meaning they
will dig an already used grave and bury the new body.
“So in one grave, you might find up to two or three bodies buried at different times,” Abdalla said.
Mostly, they cremate their bodies and fly the ashes to Kenya for burial, Abdalla noted, saying this saves on space.
The two undertakers say requests for disposal of unclaimed bodies are becoming frequent with the number of bodies increasing.
“In the past we used to dispose of about 10 unclaimed bodies, but now we dispose of even 80 bodies at a go,” Abdalla said.
Mkala and Abdalla say they sometimes get requests from families in Kwale and Kilifi counties who come to bury their loved ones in
Mombasa.
“There is no public cemetery in Kwale and the one in Kilifi is in Malili, which people living in Mtwapa say is too far. So they
prefer bringing them to Mombasa,” Abdalla said.
CREMATION A NO-NO
Most families do not want to cremate their deceased ones because of culture.
Sarah Awuor, who lost her mother in December, said they would rather let the body of their loved ones stay in the morgue for up to four
months to allow them to raise funds to transport the body to Kisumu for burial.
“Only outcasts are buried outside their homestead. Cremation is also out of the question. It is not in our culture,” said Awuor.
Abdalla also said they would never encourage people to cremate bodies.
“First, we cannot control people’s cultures. But also, if they cremate bodies, it will mean us getting out of work. What will we be doing
here?” Abdalla said.
The county has identified new sites where they will set up new cemeteries.
“We have already identified part of the Bububu settlement scheme and we have provided some 10 acres to act as a graveyard.
This will cater for the people of Likoni,” Thoya said.
The county is also looking at some areas in Mwakirunge, where they have already identified another 10-acre piece of land that will be set
aside as a public cemetery.
In Jomvu, there is another 10-acre plot earmarked for conversion into a cemetery.
The county usually has very little annual allocation for the cemeteries.
This is because they only need daily maintenance, for which about 20 people have been employed.
“All the cemeteries have been fenced and about 15-20 people have been employed to clear the bushes and maintain cleanliness. So only their salaries are budgeted for,” Thoya said.