Governor Amos Nyaribo has distanced the Nyamira county government from the discovery of 33 bodies at Makaburini Cemetery in Kericho Town, saying the county only authorised the disposal of 13 bodies.
The governor said the 13 bodies were released from Nyamira District Referral Hospital and transported to Kericho for burial in compliance with legal procedures.
“As a government, we followed the procedure. We got court orders to dispose those bodies in any public cemetery. We released an officer and a vehicle with 13 bodies, fully compliant following all the laws,” he said.
The governor expressed concern over reports of additional bodies, saying Nyamira County had no knowledge of the extra 20 remains.
“We are not aware of 33 bodies. Those involved from the county government of Nyamira and Kericho are in custody, and the government is doing thorough investigations. We are anxious to know where these other bodies came from,” Nyaribo added.
A total of 33 bodies were recovered from a mass grave at Makaburini Cemetery, with 25 confirmed as infants and eight as adults.
The recovery followed a court-authorised exercise by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, which initially targeted 14 bodies believed to have been buried at the site.
Investigators later established that the remains had been transferred from Nyamira District Referral Hospital after remaining unclaimed at the facility’s morgue.
