The government has clarified reports about the discovery of a huge cross made of concrete within Nairobi Central Business District.
The National Museums of Kenya ordered a temporary halt of renovations at City Market after the discovery and sent experts to inspect the crucifix-shaped slab.
According to the National Museums of Kenya Director of Sites and Monuments, Purity Kiura, the slab was a cover for something beneath the ground.
She stated that the conclusion from the site visit by one of the archaeologists is that the spectacle was a washing area used for the market decades ago.
The director explained that the washbasin may have been covered in concrete as the City Market went through various stages of renovation.
“The National Museums Kenya perspective is that this was a washing basin, like a huge washing basin, which was reinforced with this structure, which looks like a cross.
“Later on when the market was being rehabilitated to what it is today, it was too heavy for them to remove it from the location,” she told journalists on Tuesday, January 26.
A number of vendors at the City Market who have operated their businesses at the location for many years also corroborated the explanation.
“It's a drainage system because there are pipes from underneath. It is not a grave,” one of the butchers told reporters.
The site had been cordoned off after the discovery fuelled speculations from the site workers and other Kenyans who were shopping at the market.
Some claimed it was a burial site while others argued that it was a religious symbol, which the National Museums refuted.
“From the initial analysis and from the archaeologist’s perspective, they don't think it is a religious cross.
“Generally, wherever crosses are found, either they are standing upright and even the ones which are on the ground are not as huge,” the museum's director added.
