Nyamira Governor Amos Nyaribo has distanced his administration from a grim discovery in Kericho County, where 33 bodies were found in a mass grave.

While the Governor admitted that his county had disposed of some bodies, he insists they only authorized a small fraction of those found.

Speaking on Sunday, Governor Nyaribo admitted that his administration had authorized the disposal of 13 unclaimed bodies from Nyamira hospitals.

He insisted that his officials followed every legal step, including obtaining the necessary court orders.

However, when investigators exhumed the site at Kericho’s Makaburini Cemetery on March 21, they were met with a heartbreaking sight: the grave held 25 children and eight adults, totaling 33 victims.

The Governor is now pointing toward a potential case of corruption or professional negligence.

He revealed that the county had released Sh32,000 to pay for official burial permits in Kericho, but the money never reached the Kericho County government.

Instead, the person tasked with the job allegedly bypassed the system, making a “private arrangement” with a morgue or cemetery to dump the bodies in a single pit.

“We are anxious to know where the other bodies came from,” Nyaribo said, distancing his government from the 20 extra victims who were buried without any paperwork.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) has raised the alarm over the lack of accountability, noting that only 13 of the 33 bodies had any legal clearance at all.

While medical reports show that many of the victims died from natural causes like pneumonia or heart disease, others died from head injuries or choking.

In two cases, the cause of death remains a total mystery.

Authorities are trying to determine if these unidentified people were also unclaimed hospital patients or victims of a more sinister crime, all while searching for the officials who allowed a legal burial to turn into an undocumented mass grave.