At last, the monumental sculpture erected by Italian prisoners in Kenya near the Ndarugu camp in Kenya, found by scholar Aldo Manos and transported two years ago, thanks to the efforts and financial contribution of Comites Kenya to the Nyeri Shrine, with the approval of the Kenyan authorities and the approval of the Consolata Fathers, has been given protection and a commemorative plaque.
A symbol of the history, industriousness and resilience of our compatriots in Africa during World War II that was on the verge of being destroyed and forgotten will be able to be preserved and visited again in the future in the place that more than any other remembers the valor and atrocities that Italians captured by the British in Abyssinia and those imprisoned in East Africa had to endure.
Last June 10, Aldo Manos himself happily concluded this operation of historical dignity, thanks to the help of his compatriot Ivo Galfré, who worked hard to arrange the monument and provide it with a roof that would not only shelter it from the rain but also make it easily visible and visitable by the public and an epigraph telling its story.
The rescued part, i.e., the main fragment of the monument that lay at the mercy of vandals, workers and allotters, features bas-reliefs depicting exciting war scenes.
After efforts had been made over the years, thanks to reports by Manos and the Comites, by Italian institutions to have the site, with the vandalized monument and the adjacent small church built by Italians and run by the Protestant Church of Kenya, declared a safe place, it had taken two days of repeated attempts to lift and transport the nearly 12 tons of stone and concrete to a safe place, an operation led by Manos himself with Comites Kenya member Paolo Torchio and his wife Magalì Manconi.