One of the settlements established in Africa for Polish civilian refugees who left the USSR in 1942 with General Anders's Army was a refugee camp located in Koja, Uganda. It housed nearly 3000 people. The houses, built of reeds and clay, were thatched with elephant grass. A square was created in the middle of the settlement where a church was built. Public schools, a middle and high school, and a community centre were established. A scouting movement was active. There was a 40-bed hospital in the settlement.

Refugees who died during the period of the settlement's operation, i.e. until 1951, were buried in a cemetery established nearby. Over time, their graves were destroyed and then levelled with heavy equipment (the cemetery is located on a private farm). In 1996, thanks to the cooperation of the Polish Embassy in Nairobi and the Polish missionary post of the Salesian Fathers in Kamuli, as well as grants from the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, the cemetery was reconstructed. Its area of 992 m2 was cleared and tidied up, the surrounding wall was repaired and partially reconstructed, and a new metal entrance gate was installed. The obelisk with the cross was then reconstructed and a pedestal was made, on which marble slabs with the names of 96 Poles buried there were placed. A metal fence separated the obelisk and the pedestal from the cemetery area.

The cemetery is looked after by Salesian fathers from the Polish missionary post in Kamuli.

During the renovation works carried out in 2009 by the Scientific Circle of Historians of the Pedagogical University of Cracow, on the basis of an archival photograph provided by one of the local inhabitants, the inscription on the monument was reconstructed: "DECEASED POLES ON THEIR WAY TO THEIR HOMELAND". The original cross originally placed on the monument was then found behind the cemetery fence. It is massive and bears no resemblance to the one placed in 1996.

In 2012, on the initiative of Dr Hubert Chudzio (director of the Centre for the Documentation of Deportation, Expulsion and Resettlement), in cooperation with Father Ryszard Józwiak from the Don Bosco mission centre in Namugongo, 96 symbolic nameless crosses were erected in the cemetery with funds collected mainly from private individuals (especially former Siberians and their descendants). These crosses were made by children from the Don Bosco mission under the direction of Fr Jóźwiak.

Information about the settlement in Koja, as well as the cemetery and the people buried there, can be found in the publication "Deceased Poles on their way to their homeland. Polskie cmentarze w Afryce Wschodniej i Południowej 1942-1952" by Hubert Chudzio and Marcin Solarz (the publication was used to compile the attached personal data of persons buried at the cemetery), Krakow 2020 and on the website: https://polskiecmentarzewafryce.up.krakow.pl/.