Residents of Nakuru town have been challenged to embrace cremation as one way of saving space and resources required when burying the dead.
Timothy Bosire, a planning consultant said that the amount of land being used as cemetery could be put into other economic use only if residents could embrace cremation.
He cited an example with the Nakuru main cemetery which he said is full beyond capacity and noted that the money being used to source for an alternative cemetery could be used for other purposes.
He said that there was nothing wrong with cremating dead bodies saying that in fact it reduces pollution of the environment.
“Africans have stuck on some traditional beliefs which do not add any value to their lives. We use a lot of resources in buying land only to make it useless and un–productive by turning it into a cemetery, people should think of cremation as an alternative way of resting their loved ones. What will happen when there will be no more land for cemeteries?” he posed.
He said there was need to stop wasting money in buying cemeteries when an incinerator, which will be enough to cremate as many bodies as possible in one day, can be put up.
He was speaking Friday morning at a county planning stakeholders’ forum at a Nakuru hotel.