Residents in Sagana Kirinyaga County have demanded the police heighten security at a public cemetery frequented by thieves seeking crosses and other grave decorations.
According to Fredrick Kabui, a staff member at the St. Mary’s Village Home for the aged which houses the cemetery, the disturbing incidents have been happening for quite some time.
Kabui added that over 40 crosses from the graves of elderly women were stolen, leaving the cemetery unmarked.
“We think that they are selling them as scrap because they are made of metal."
“We want to switch to concrete crosses, but they are too expensive to make,” the staff member complained.
Speaking to the local media, Kabui noted that unclaimed bodies of women from the home are buried at the cemetery.
The staff members thus called on local authorities to curb the break-ins, as efforts to reduce the thefts proved futile.
“We cemented the crosses around the statue of Jesus Christ, but we realized that they are also stealing them," Kabui stated, adding that the thieves were hellbent on continuing with their vice nonetheless.
To compound the situation, St. Mary’s Village Home claimed that it reported the incidents at the Ndia Police Station but police were yet to respond to the grievances raised.
The St. Mary's Village Home for Aged Women was established in 1974 by an Italian missionary to serve deaf, blind and elderly women abandoned by their kin.
The Head manager at the home, sister Thressia Maliakkal, came to Kenya in 1991 after Catholic sisters from the society of Nirmala were contracted to manage the home.
"We urge those involved to stop this habit because it is not profitable, they sell a cross for about Ksh20 or Ksh30," Sister Maliakkal stated.
