Investor targets Nairobi with first private cemetery

An Investor is targeting Nairobi and Kiambu residents with the first private cemetery in the country as the two counties grapple with inadequate space to lay the dead.

Eastern Rift Sawmills Ltd has sought the approval of the environment watchdog to set up a private run cemetery on a 63-acre piece of land in Nyandarua County’s Kinungi area, about 45 kilometres from Nairobi.

Cemeteries in Nairobi and Kiambu are near full and the two counties have been struggling to get land for burials, opening way for private investors to seek a piece of the business.

“The developer’s target market is primarily the Nairobi County metropolitan area, where urban dwellers may not have easy access to family burial plots or cannot get space in the public cemeteries that are almost full to capacity,” reads the report submitted to the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).

The cemetery dubbed ‘Gates of Pearl Cemetery’ will have an estimated capacity of 700 graves per year and is expected to run for 50 years before being decommissioned.

It is located along the Nairobi-Naivasha highway, which serves a larger hinterland including Kiambu, Nyandarua and Nakuru counties.

The facility will comprise a crematorium, restaurant, commercial centre, memorial park and a chapel that will accommodate up to 400 people.

It will be the first to be privately owned and managed in Kenya if it receives the nod from Nema.

Eastern Rift Sawmills Ltd says it will develop the facility in five years.

“I know of no other private run cemetery,” Titus Simiyu, said the Nairobi County director of environment in response to our queries.

Demand for burial land has been on the rise in Nairobi and Kiambu where the property craze saw coffee plantations and rural homes replaced with gated housing estates and shopping centres.

The price of an acre in commuter belt territory of about nearly 40km from the city centre more than tripled over the past years, forcing many to seek cemeteries to bury the dead for fear of diluting their property value.

The problem has been worsened by a shift in traditional practices as a result of harsh economic conditions, with individuals choosing to bury their dead in Nairobi as opposed to transporting them up country

This has put pressure on the Lang’ata Cemetery. The Nairobi County is hard-pressed for land and is putting in place a number of strategies to counter the deficiency, including buying additional land on the periphery of the city.

Attempts by Nairobi City Council to buy land for Sh283 million in Mavoko, Machakos County, failed over corrupt dealings that saw City Hall lose the cash.

Kiambu County says it cemetery is more than 95 per cent filled and is the county is also in the market seeking burial land worth Sh100 million.

This comes in a period when burial charges in the city are on the rise. Nairobi raised burial charges by 40 per cent last year. Adult burial charges in the special zone rose to Sh70,000 from Sh50,000 while in the normal site the rates increased to Sh25,000 from Sh17,400.

The rates are expected to rise with the rapid urbanisation, watering the market for investors who will have to navigate the discomfort most Kenyans have over having cemeteries and morgues near their homes.