KERICHO, Kenya — Authorities in western Kenya said Thursday they have exhumed at least 33 bodies from a mass grave, and the remains were believed to have been transferred there from a hospital morgue.

Homicide detectives exhumed the remains of eight adults and 25 children as well as dismembered body parts packed in gunny sacks from a mass grave at a church-owned cemetery in the town of Kericho, according to authorities.

“We were able to establish that these were bodies transferred from Nyamira District Hospital to a private cemetery in Kericho,” Mohamed Amin, the head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, told reporters.

Amin said detectives want to find out whether the bodies were disposed legally after being removed from a morgue.

Under Kenyan law, hospitals and morgues are required to dispose bodies that are unclaimed for more than 14 days. The process requires authorization by court order.

Government pathologists conducted autopsies on Thursday to determine the cause of death. The bodies’ identities have not been revealed.

At least two people have been arrested.

Local media reported that unidentified people brought the bodies from elsewhere in a vehicle belonging to the government and hurriedly buried them. Some of the gravediggers are said to have alerted the police.

“We need authorities to conduct a thorough investigation,” said resident Brian Kibunja.

Another local, Samuel Moso, said authorities should “reveal if the government was involved or if a different group of people was behind the mass burial.”

This is the third major mass-grave incident in Kenya over the last three years.

In 2023 police uncovered hundreds of bodies buried in a forest in the Kenyan coastal region of Kilifi. The bodies were exhumed from mass graves linked to a religious leader who starved his followers to death.

In 2024, authorities recovered 9 bodies from a dumpsite in Nairobi, the capital.

The latest discovery coincides with growing concern among some Kenyans over rights abuses allegedly perpetrated by the police.

Missing Voices, a human rights group, has documented 125 extrajudicial killings and 6 enforced disappearances over the last year in Kenya. The number of reported extrajudicial killings was 104 the previous year.