Kenyan detectives say at least 33 bodies exhumed from a mass grave in the western town of Kericho were transferred there from a government hospital morgue, deepening questions over how the remains were handled and who authorised their burial.

The bodies, recovered from a church-owned cemetery, include eight adults and 25 children, among them foetuses. According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, the remains were moved from Nyamira District Hospital to the private burial site, where they were interred together with dismembered body parts packed in gunny bags.

Investigators are now examining whether the transfer and disposal complied with Kenyan law, which allows hospitals and morgues to dispose of unclaimed bodies after 14 days, but only with a court order and clear documentation. Police have not said whether such authorisation exists in this case.

Government pathologists have begun autopsies to establish the causes of death and to determine whether any of the victims may have died violently. The identities of the dead have not been made public, and it remains unclear how many families, if any, were informed before the burials took place.

At least two suspects have been arrested. Local media, citing witnesses, report that unidentified individuals arrived at the cemetery in what appeared to be a government vehicle and ordered a hurried burial. Gravediggers, unsettled by the number of bodies and the manner of the operation, are said to have alerted authorities, triggering the exhumations.

Residents in Kericho are demanding transparency. “We need authorities to conduct a thorough investigation,” said local resident Brian Kibunja. Another, Samuel Moso, urged officials to “reveal if the government was involved or if a different group of people was behind the mass burial.”

The discovery is the third major mass-grave incident to shake Kenya in recent years. In the coastal county of Kilifi, police previously uncovered hundreds of bodies linked to a doomsday cult whose followers were allegedly starved to death. In a separate case, nine bodies were recovered from a dumpsite in Nairobi.

Rights groups say the latest case feeds into wider fears over abuses by security agencies. Missing Voices, a Kenyan human rights coalition, has documented a rising toll of alleged extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, warning that weak oversight and opaque investigations are eroding public trust in law enforcement.