Nairobi — The Uhuru Gardens Museum will be accessible to the public free of charge from April next year, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced Sunday, revealing that the museum construction was inspired by Opposition chief Raila Odinga.
The head of state revealed that the construction of the Museum that hosted the 2021 Jamhuri Day celebrations was a concept guided by Odinga.
“I want to thank Odinga who has been giving me advice since I started to focus on the Uhuru Gardens project. We will be back here come April next year to open the museum and the stadium officially so that children and Kenyans can visit this place without any charge,” said Kenyatta when he officiated Jamhuri Day celebrations at the gardens.
Odinga revealed that Uhuru Gardens grounds was grabbed but the government has managed to restore the lover that has over the years been used to host corporate events, weddings and filmmaking.
“This land had been grabbed but those land grabbers who don’t see any open space and stop grabbing them but you managed to retrieve it back for the benefit of our people,” said Odinga.
The ODM leader hinted that the Weston Hotels grounds owned by Deputy President William Ruto was part of Uhuru gardens as it hosts torture chambers preserved by the Museum of Kenya.
Odinga rekindled historical moments saying that the Uhuru Gardens was a symbolic one as it was commonly known as Open grounds, started by the forefathers in the Legislative Council of Kenya (LEGCO).
“Freedom fighters were tortured here. Your excellency what you have done is the best. You have said here you want history unedited so that people will come here to know who Harry Thuku and many of our Kenyans patriots were,” said Odinga.
Kenyatta stated that the marking of the 58th Jamhuri Day celebrations in Uhuru Gardens was historical as it was the place where the forefathers led by Mzee Jomo Kenyatta hoisted the independence flag.
Located along Langata Road, the garden has three monuments, the Fig Tree or Mugumo Tree, the 20th Anniversary Monument and the 25th Anniversary Monument. A Mugumo tree, sacred to a number of groups, was planted by President Jomo Kenyatta.
Other monuments comprise the independence commemorative monument, built in 1973, a twenty-four-meter-high column, supporting a pair of clasped hands and a dove of peace.
It celebrates the declaration of independence at midnight, 12 December 1963 and the inauguration of Kenya’s first president, Jomo Kenyatta and a statue of soldiers raising the Kenyan flag and a fountain celebrating “Twenty-Five years of Uhuru – peace, love and unity monument”.
It was declared a national monument in 1966, three years after the Kenyan flag was hoisted there on Independence Day, December 12, 1963.
“This place will be a remembrance of the great and good things we have been able to implement and the bad we have gone through that we have to learn from as a nation,” said Kenyatta.
In March, a Chinese contractor and military were given the mandate to be among contractors on site working on roads, a government museum, shopping complex, business center, a hotel and convention center.
In the government museum, a monument or heroes’ corner will bear the names of personalities, including former presidents and heroes.
Sources claim that the Jomo Kenyatta Mausoleum located in Parliament building will be moved to the new Uhuru Gardens site.
Officials from the National Museums of Kenya have been helping government agencies move key artefacts to the new site.