6 body parts, including 4 legs and 2 hands, were also discovered
By Gina Kalsi
NEED TO KNOW
- A mass grave containing 32 bodies has been discovered in the county of Kericho, Kenya
- 7 adults, 25 children and 6 body parts were found during the exhumation at Makaburini Cemetery
- 2 people have been arrested in connection with the investigation, according to local reports
A mass grave containing around 32 bodies, which are mostly children, has been dug up in the Kenyan county of Kericho, according to local reports. The exhumation took place at Makaburini Cemetery on Tuesday, March 24, after the police received a tip-off from a whistleblower, prompting them to launch an investigation into the matter, according to BBC Africa.
The force was initially granted a court order to recover the 14 corpses that were initially believed to be at the site, but uncovered additional bodies in the process.
“We found 7 adults and 25 children, who qualify some of them as neonates and fetuses. So in total, we have 32 bodies," government pathologist Richard Njoroge told journalists on Tuesday, March 24, per KTN News Kenya.
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He added: “We also found 6 body parts, 4 legs and 2 hands. So those ones, we are going to analyze them.” The corpses were also reportedly “stacked in gunny bags,” per Africa News.
"Some of these look like they have come from mortuaries and others from hospitals, but we are going to determine that when we finish with the autopsy," Njoroge said, per Citizen TV Kenya.
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The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) told BBC Africa that their early findings suggested that 13 unclaimed bodies had officially been released from a hospital in Nyamira county. They were taken to be buried in Kericho for burial on Friday, March 20.
But questions are still being raised over the additional corpses and the manner of which they were buried. The Makaburini Cemetery is owned by the National Council of Churches of Kenya, which has distanced itself from any knowledge of the bodies, according to KTN News Kenya.
Hussein Khalid, human rights activist, lawyer and CEO of the charity Vocal Africa, told the media channel: “The autopsy of those bodies will have to be done to ascertain the cause of death for each one of them. We are also not sure of the number … there could’ve been 2 or 3 bodies, others had parts of bodies, so we are not sure.”
Local news websites Tuko, Daily Nation and Citizen Digital reported that David Araka Makori, a Nyamira County public health officer, and Richard Towett, cemetery manager, were arrested in connection with the case.
The court reportedly allowed police to hold them for 30 days as they continue their investigation. PEOPLE contacted the National Council of Churches of Kenya and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations for comment and further information, but they did not immediately respond.
