Hindu Community celebrate 24 years of BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Temple

The temple is not only a home for spirituality but fosters personal growth, imparts values of honesty, team work, and righteous living.

The spiritual assemblies take place every Saturday for the youth and Sundays for adults.

The Temple has a holy congregation of over 1200 devotees gather for prayers with 18 priests stationed in Africa out of whom 4 reside in Nairobi.

Although there were temples in Africa before this, it is the first traditional stone and marble Hindu temple to be constructed on the African continent and was built by BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, a Hindu denomination within the Swaminarayan Sampradaya.

According to Wikipedia, the stone was mined and transported to Pindwada, some 400 km to Jesalmer where it was hand-carved by 150 craftsmen.

Following two years of carving work, the pieces were shipped to Mombasa, Kenya and assembled in Nairobi like a giant three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle.

A team from Kenya visited some of the famous temples and monuments in Rajasthan, Kerala and elsewhere in India before the temple design was finalised.

Photos by Samson Wire