OUT&ABOUT: Where legends’ graves rest

It’s Saturday morning and I’m in no mood to work or go to the gym. All l want is to escape from the city. However, the best getaway is actually within the city — there’s a guided forest walk in Nairobi City Park Forest.

Here’s something l didn’t know about City Park. There’s free yoga on Sunday afternoons for anyone interested. Patrick Ngotho, a member of just about every nature group in Kenya, leads me to the patch of green space for yoga and shows off a couple of stretches.

A few steps away is the space for sculptures. And not just ordinary sculptures, but those sculpted by maestros. They were in the collection of Joseph Murumbi, Kenya’s second Vice-President (between May and December 1966), one of Africa’s greatest art collectors.

We’re at Murumbi Memorial Garden admiring sculptures by famous artists like Elkana Ongesa and the late Expedito Mwebe Kibbula, who is hailed as Africa’s Picasso in the open air gallery. Murumbi wasn’t just a collector, rather an amazing collector of all things African. His vast collection includes rare books such as those written in the 18th century by freed African slaves in America, stamps, paintings, jewellery — all Afro-centric — some at the Nairobi Gallery, the National Archives and Nairobi Museum. With his long-time business partner Alan Donavan of the African Heritage fame, the two founded the largest Pan-African art gallery suitably called the African Heritage.

It was also Murumbi’s wish to be buried by his mentor, Pio Gama Pinto, the radical Kenyan journalist, politician and freedom fighter. Pinto became independent Kenya's first martyr in 1965 after he was shot a few minutes’ drive from the park.

On this quiet Saturday morning, we pay our respect to Murumbi and his wife Sheila, who are buried at the memorial garden close to Pio Gama Pinto. Murumbi could not be buried next to Pinto as the cemetery was full.

Walking out of the beautiful garden, Pio Gama Pinto’s pictures are framed at the entrance, with the smell of fresh grass cut by Donovan’s gardener Zak Osimbi, who maintains the park, filling the air.

It becomes quite a memorial walk. Pio Gama Pinto’s grave is in a picturesque graveyard overgrown with grass but dotted with tombstones that are also works of art. Most date from the early 1900s, including the neatly laid out Commonwealth graves from the First World War.

Across the road, we enter the lush forest of indigenous trees. We walk along quiet paths enjoying the fresh forest air till we arrive at the river. It’s surreal.

In the midst of the city, we’re in an ancient forest that once covered Nairobi. Ngotho points to more endemic trees like the Brachylaena huillensis or silver oak, which is a threatened hardwood. As the morning warms, light dapples through the leaves on to the forest floor. A pair of Paradise flycatchers flit in the lower canopy. “We have recorded 120 species of birds here,” states Ngotho.

We’re at the sunken garden now but it’s overgrown, with the Kibagare River flowing through it. The river is one of the many tributaries of the Nairobi River. It flows into Mathare River, which is a larger tributary of Nairobi River. There’s also a natural maze that’s being redone by Friends of City Park and Kenya Horticulture Society. It will be fun to try and find the way out through the maze once it’s done.

Finally, we’re at a landmark within the park, which was erected in the 1930s for Nairobians to enjoy music. It’s at the bandstand where kids play while Sykes monkeys groom themselves. By now we’ve walked for three kilometres and I’m feeling brand new again. It’s been a great getaway.

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