Kenya is stepping up efforts to bring back cultural artifacts, including human remains and heritage objects, that were taken abroad, Principal Secretary for Culture, the Arts and Heritage, Ummi Bashir, has revealed.
The government is engaging foreign nations that have started returning these items and is collaborating with UNESCO and other African countries to ensure their restoration to local communities.
“These artifacts belong to us, so return them back home. We choose to do whatever we want with them,” Ummi said on Tuesday during an interview on Radio Generation. She recalled that in 2023, Kenya successfully repatriated 85 vigangos from Illinois University in Chicago to Kayakauma in Kilifi County.
The return of these objects was marked by traditional ceremonies involving rituals, goat sacrifices, and dances, honoring the spirits associated with the vigangos.
“These are statues or structures placed outside houses to respect spirits that have already left. Now they come back home, and we need to do a ritual that accepts and acclimatizes them,” Ummi explained, underlining the profound cultural meaning of the practice.
Ummi outlined plans to protect and preserve repatriated items. “We have a plan in place that once the policy is passed in Cabinet, we do public participation, and then take it to Cabinet. We have a document that will guide us, and I have no doubt we will take care of them, because we are the end users,” she said.
She added that the National Museums of Kenya has the facilities to store, research, and display these artifacts while enabling communities to narrate their own stories.
“The story is ours to tell. Each community can have an exhibition of their repatriated artifacts. When the story is told by those who understand it best, it has immense cultural and economic value,” she said. Human remains returned to Kenya will also be buried according to local traditions, she added.
The PS emphasized Kenya’s active participation in global heritage protection frameworks, including the UNESCO 1970 Convention on stolen artifacts, and partnerships with the African Union and other countries to ensure African perspectives are represented internationally.
“We respect UNESCO conventions, because that’s where the conversation starts. It doesn’t stop at ratification; we are also developing legislation to implement and activate these conventions fully,” Ummi said.
Kenya ratified the UNESCO 1970 Convention in February 2024, a move that strengthens the country’s legal and institutional measures to prevent the looting and illegal trade of cultural property.
Through these initiatives, Kenya aims not only to reclaim its cultural heritage but also to empower communities to safeguard and share their traditions for future generations.
