Italian Ambassador Roberto Natali, invites all compatriots resident or currently present in Kenya to the ceremony in honour of Italian prisoners who died in East Africa, which will take place at the Nyeri memorial on Sunday 3 November. The ambassador, who will attend the event, wishes to recall that ‘it will be an important moment to remember our soldiers and, at the same time, to pay homage to the Armed Forces, the backbone of our democratic State’.

Natali hopes for ‘a large participation by the Italians present in Kenya, as a testimony to our unitary spirit and respect for those who have lost their lives far from their loved ones in the fulfilment of their duties’.

The appointment is set for 10.30 a.m., and Holy Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m.

This will be followed by refreshments kindly offered by Comites Kenya in the adjacent premises of the Consolata missionaries.

The Comites will also organise, free of charge, the transfer to Nyeri from Nairobi and the return by minibus.

The departure of the vehicles is set for 7 am at the Village Market in Gigiri, Kingsway Tyres area.

For those wishing to take advantage of the service, please contact President Bruno Giachino on tel. 0722512055 or via email at giachinob@gmail.com or Vice-President Dario Zecchini at dario@zecchini.org

The Italian Military Memorial, in the town just over two hours from the capital Nairobi, was built by the Italian government between 1950 and 1952 on land offered in concession by the Consolata missions.

Not only does it house the remains of Duke Amedeo D'Aosta, commander of the troops that surrendered to the British army on the Ethiopian mountains of Amba Alagi, but those of 700 other Italian prisoners who from 1941 to 1946 were held in 15 camps in East Africa and mainly in Kenya and had already been buried in 25 war cemeteries scattered around the country.

Inside the shrine, it is possible to read the names of the soldiers who lost their lives during their imprisonment, after being deported and forced into hard labour and conditions at the limit of human endurance, among infectious diseases, insects and animals, poor food and zero hygiene.

The Duke of Aosta himself, although kept in a particular prison, the Macmillan Castle near Thika, already suffering from tuberculosis, died of malaria.

The Nyeri Shrine, in addition to preserving and displaying the tomb of the Duke inside the church and the tombstones of the fallen prisoners, houses part of a monument sculpted and decorated by the Italian prisoners that the Comites transported from Thika and also the tombs that commemorate the Muslim ascari who were taken prisoners together with the Italians and deported.