The gently swaying trees that form a dark-green canopy, the chirping birds and the cool breeze make driving through Kinale forest along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway a memorable experience.
But behind the trees and chirping birds lies the dark side of the forest.
According to villagers, many of who now dread the forest, what appears to be the epitome of environmental conservation is something else altogether. It is a green morgue.
Every month, the villagers say they stumble on bodies, mainly of men, murdered elsewhere and dumped in the forest.
A similar story has been reported by motorists driving along the Kamae-Thika road, a few kilometres from Naivasha. For first-timers, the road that cuts through the Aberdare forest unfolds through picturesque sights and sounds. Luckier ones have reported driving into a herd of elephants calmly grazing by the roadside.
But in recent years, the road has turned into an open morgue for anonymous bodies. It is on this road where bodies of three brothers from Nakuru who had gone missing last month were found.
Another road that is notorious for dumped bodies is the Naivasha-Mai Mahiu-Limuru road.
Two weeks ago, police collected two bodies - a man and woman - in an open field next to the road. Both had been strangled and their bodies doused with a chemical.
Incidentally, in nearly all the cases, the bodies are of young or middle-aged men, a majority of them strangled or hit on the back of the head using a blunt object.
Anonymous graves
According to statistics from Naivasha sub-county hospital, 15 bodies have been collected along the three roads this year.
According to the superintendent in charge of the hospital, Dr Joseph Mburu, some of the bodies are never claimed. Most have no documents on them that can help identify them.
Many end up inside anonymous graves in the hospital’s cemetery.
“The bodies are brought to Naivasha as this is the only public facility along the highway and this has taken a toll on our services,” says Mr Mburu.
Most of the bodies are only identified once their cases are highlighted in the media.
According to Mburu, once the bodies are identified, their kin quietly collect them for burial.
A senior police officer who has been involved in investigating some of the cases but who did not want to be identified did not rule out extra-judicial killings.
“A majority of the bodies are strangled, not shot,” he says.
Early this year, a two-week search for a missing matatu driver ended when his bullet-riddled body was found dumped at the Naivasha Sub-county Hospital mortuary. The family of 43-year-old Wallace Kahiro accused police from Kikuyu Police station of extra-judicial killings.
Growing pile
According to his cousin, Pastor Sammy Wanyoike, Kahiro had been arrested by police and held at the police station for five days. He was later set free by a Kikuyu law court but disappeared soon after. His body was collected in Kinale forest.
Initial reports indicated that the deceased was shot through the back of the head by people suspected to be police officers.
Villagers living next to Naivasha-Mai Mahiu road say they no longer get alarmed by these macabre discoveries.
But for many parents in the area, the growing pile of bodies is beginning to haunt their families, especially their children.
“Most of these bodies are found by children going to school and this is traumatising,” says Christine Ndinda
