32 bodies, fetuses recovered from mystery mass grave in Kenya

Kenyan authorities exhume 32 bodies and fetuses from a mass grave in the Rift Valley town of Kericho after reports of a secret burial, Tuesday, March 24, 2026.

Warning: Graphic Content.

Kenyan authorities on Tuesday exhumed 32 bodies and fetuses from a mass grave in the Rift Valley town of Kericho after reports of a secret burial.

Police received a report on Saturday about the mass burial of 14 bodies by unknown individuals at a cemetery in the western Kenyan town, prompting investigations, local media reported.

The area was cordoned off and a probe launched.

“It was one mass grave...We found seven adults and 25 children some of them are neonates and fetuses,” government pathologist Dr Richard Njoroge told journalists.

The bodies were stacked in bags, with six body parts dismembered, Njoroge said, adding that analysis will determine whether they belong to one person or several.

“Some of these look like they have come from mortuaries and other hospitals,” he said.

Authorities have yet to establish the cause of death, and autopsies are expected to be carried out in the coming days.

In 2023 hundreds of bodies were discovered in the Kenyan coast, in what became known as the “Shakahola Forest Massacre,” one of the world’s worst cult-related tragedies.