The Italian War Memorial Church in Nyeri is not your ordinary Catholic sanctuary.
Located at Mathari  few metres from the Ihururu road about five kilometres from Nyeri Town, the sanctuary houses the remains of 676 mostly Italian soldiers captured by the British during the Second World War.

While it was being built - disguised as a church - few people knew that behind this facade was a move to negotiate (or just ambush) British authorities to have about 700 bodies of Italians soldiers and civilians, who had died during the World War II in East Africa, buried on the "church" walls. It worked.

Even today, locals in Nyeri have little idea why this church in the vicinity of the central Kenya town hardly opens for service and why it attracts so many Italian tourists.

Part of the reason is now contained in a declassified secret letter written by then Italian consular in Nairobi: Africans were not to be involved in the exercise.

The structure is no doubt massive: 110 feet long and 50 feet wide, and is one of those structures in Kenya's countryside that have a hidden history. Built in 1952 by Italian artisans (and locals) at a cost £30,000 (Sh4.2 million at the current rates) the vaults - are publicly known to contain about 700 Italian prisoners of war but little is known on how the war dead ended up there.

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written by Pope, November 28, 2010

A full photo of the church could help.

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written by wawiraj, November 29, 2010

i have never known this.gud

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written by Sophia, December 03, 2010

thanks for the: know your history. one more place to take visitors. but does that mean one can only enter on Nov 4th?

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