Tourists now throng world war graves

The heroic deaths of soldiers during the First and Second World Wars might be a receding memory for some.

But this is not the case for hundreds of tourists flocking to the Commonwealth War Graves in Mbaraki, Mombasa.

Here they come seeking to honour and immortalise these gallant souls who put their lives on the line for the British and its allies and whose remains and memories are now interred in the cemeteries.

“I receive busloads of British tourists daily who come to pay their respects to departed loved ones. Most of them come to place flower wreaths on these graves while some also pay emotional tributes.

Some get so overwhelmed to the point of literally hugging the headstones,” says Mike Wambua, a supervisor at the war graves.

Wambua, who has held this job for the past 20 years, says scholars have also started touring the site to collect data for research.

“The headstone on each grave bears the age and rank of the soldier buried underneath and as you can see, a good number of these were young men. Many were flight engineers and lieutenants who were barely 21years old when they met their death,” he says.

Those buried at the Mbaraki war graves include 148 British soldiers, 25 South Africans, 14 East Africans, five Indians, one Australian, one New Zealander, one British West Indian, a soldier from Malta, one Rhodesian and one Frenchman.

According to Kenya Hotel Keepers and Caterers Tsavo and Amboseli Branch Chairman Willy Mwadilo, the interest now being shown in this burial site underscores the region’s position as an important cog in the relatively new concept of battlefield tourism.