Nderitu Maina is an undertaker at the expansive Lang’ata Cemetery, a position he has held for the last 15 years.
He previously worked at the City Mortuary before he was moved to the cemetery along Lang’ata Road.
In a recent interview, Maina spoke on his role as an undertaker, and some misconceptions about the cemetery.
Here is his story as told by WoK.
Maina works from an office inside the cemetery.
He has previously worked as a clerk for a health facility within Nairobi before being posted to City Mortuary.
His job revolves around receiving people who want to bury their loved ones and giving directions on the procedure of conducting a burial.
Maina also oversees cremation and exhuming processes.
“Our cash office is at City Mortuary. You go there, pay and then we are alerted here. We have two types of graves here, permanent and temporary graves,” he said.
The permanent grave has a lease period of 99 years and the family has an option of burying a loved one on top of another.
Here, two people are buried in one grave; one person can be buried at 6 feet deep, while the other person can be buried at 4 feet deep.
In an interview with Citizen Digital, he also explained that families are also allowed to lay tombstones on the permanent graves.
On the other hand, the temporary graves are reused after 10-15 years.
For the permanent grave, the cemetery charges Ksh 30,500 for and adult who died within Nairobi, Ksh 40,000 for an adult who died outside Nairobi and Ksh 50,000 for foreigners.
For the temporary graves, the cemetery charges Ksh 7,000 for adults. It doesn’t matter where the person died.
On myths about the cemetery which include presence of spirits and ghosts, Maina dismissed them as naysay.
He noted that wild animals are the ones that frequent the cemetery because it borders an animal orphanage.
“Everything you’ve heard about this place is not true. A grave is just a grave, nothing else. A cemetery is a cool place to work from
“At night this place is very calm, no spirits or ghosts, safe for a few wild animals from the orphanage which is our neighbour here. You will find them roaming just like any other place,” he said.
He also addressed claims of bodies being exhumed and coffins stolen as well as excavation of the cemetery to create more space for burial.
“People talk a lot. I used to hear these stories before I came. And even when I came, they are still being said
“Some people used to take advantage of such tales to commit crime in the cemetery, like stealing and sharing their loot from here because no one could follow them into this place,” he added.
