Plans mooted for monument to honour county heroes

The Nyeri County Scouts and Girl Guides movement is set to construct a monument and a resource centre in Nyeri Town to honour the county’s heroes and heroines.

The monument and a resources centre will have sculptures of Lord Robert Baden Powell and his wife Olave.

Others to be honoured in a similar way include Mau Mau freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi and environmentalist Prof Wangari Maathai.

Nyeri County Scouts Training Commissioner Maina Wachira on Wednesday said this will act as a centre where all information on these heroes will be obtained.

PERIMETER WALL

He said the movement will erect a perimeter wall around Lord Powell’s grave and rename the park to Baden Powell Historical Garden.

“What we want to do is to have the sculptures of all the heroes.

We want to have the sculpture of Baden Powell with a brief history about him and that his wife.

We will also honour Dedan Kimathi, Prof Wangari Maathai and others so that when one comes here from any part of the world they can get that information and history from the garden,” he said.

Africa Scouts Youth Forum Chairperson Grace Michuki said the movement’s council to be launched next weekend in Nyeri Town aims at helping young people develop in all spheres of life.

She said the council will act as a way of uniting youth in Africa, and Nyeri will be a starting point as it is regarded as the home of the scouting movement.

HOME OF SCOUTING

“We also want to bring all the youth and stakeholders in Nyeri together because all of us know that Nyeri is home of scouting as the founder of the movement was buried here out of his own will,” said Ms Michuki.

The movement’s patron in Nyeri Mrs Margaret Gachagua said they shall be holding an international camp early 2014 in Nyeri to boost the tourism sector in the county.

Two months ago, the movement hosted a contingent of 74 Explorer Scouts from Essex and Hampshire in the United Kingdom (UK) for a two week long camp dubbed ‘UKenya Camp 2013’.

The camp also incorporated Kenyan Rover Scouts who were mainly to offer service at the camp.

They also shared experiences with the visiting scouts.

HISTORIC CONNECTIONS

The camp provided an ideal opportunity for the Kenyan and UK scouts to re-ignite their historic connections and renew the scouting spirit.

The scouting relations between Kenya and UK dates back to early 1900s, when the founder of scouting movement Lord Baden Powell, a Lieutenant General in the British Army first visited Kenya in 1906.

In 1935, he came for the second time for Safari and in 1938 he made up his mind to live in Nyeri, until his death on January 8, 1941.

He was buried in Nyeri, at the St Peter’s ACK church compound .