Kenyan authorities have launched a major criminal investigation after uncovering a mass grave containing 32 bodies, including children and foetuses, on the outskirts of Kericho town in the Rift Valley region.

The site was found after residents alerted police to suspicious burials on a privately owned parcel of land. What was initially reported as a small, clandestine grave quickly escalated into a large-scale forensic operation as officers and pathologists began exhumations under tight security.

Government pathologist Dr Richard Njoroge said the grave held the remains of seven adults and 25 children, among them neonates and foetuses. Many of the bodies had been stuffed into gunny bags and layered in a single pit, suggesting an organised effort to conceal them. In addition to the bodies, investigators recovered dismembered body parts, including four legs and two hands, raising further questions about how the victims died and were handled.

Police have sealed off the area, treating it as an active crime scene. Forensic teams, homicide detectives and officials from the health ministry are working together to document the remains, collect DNA samples and search for any items that might identify the victims or link the grave to specific institutions or individuals.

Preliminary theories under consideration include the possibility that some of the remains may have come from hospitals, clinics or mortuaries, potentially disposed of illegally instead of being handled through formal burial or cremation procedures. Investigators are scrutinising medical facilities in the wider Kericho region and examining records of unclaimed bodies, stillbirths and neonatal deaths.

Local leaders have demanded transparency and swift answers, with community members expressing shock and anger that such a grave could exist unnoticed. Human rights groups are calling for an independent review of how human remains are managed in Kenyan health facilities, warning that the case may expose systemic failures in oversight and regulation.

The discovery has revived painful memories of the Shakahola Forest killings, where hundreds of bodies linked to a doomsday cult were exhumed in a separate case that drew global attention to Kenya’s capacity to investigate mass deaths and protect vulnerable people.

Authorities say the Kericho investigation will continue until all remains are identified and those responsible for the secret burials are brought to justice.