The serenity of Makongo forest in Makueni County is deceiving. Its thick canopy hides dark secrets of dumped bodies, babies and foetuses.
Locals near the dense catchment that supplies rivers in Machakos and Makueni counties with water have scary memories of bodies dumped in different parts of the forest in the last three years.
A photo taken on February 24, 2025 at the location where the body of Briton Campbell Scott was dumped along Machakos-Wote highway
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group
“This stretch from Makongo through Kyachambalasi to Mukuyuni township dangerous. Criminals have found a perfect place to dump bodies here,” Mr Nicholas Muasa, a resident of Makongo, told the Daily Nation.
The lack of power supply and security cameras on the highway is largely to blame, the retired army major explained.
The dense darkness that covers the entire stretch of the road that virtually goes dead from 9pm envelopes everything and stirs a perplexity in the hearts of residents and visitors alike.
A photo taken on February 24, 2025, showing a Makongo Forest signpost near the location where the body of Briton Campbell Scott was found.
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group
With few or no vehicles on this stretch at night, residents often walk from Kyambalasi trading centre to their homes in Makongo.
Nothing scares them more than having to use the stretch, knowing well that they may stumble on a body or chance upon the criminals dumping a corpse.
“It is better to find a body near the forest than meet the people dumping it as that means yours will be next to be dumped there. They will not allow you to go after witnessing what they have just done,” Mr Muasa said.
In 2023, the bodies of a man and a woman were found a few hundred metres from where that of Mr Scott was retrieved. The man was later identified as an electronics businessman in Wote. The woman’s body was too decomposed to be identified.
Ms Dorothy Kyengo, a resident of Makongo, recalled twin horrifying events have made locals fear using the road past 7pm.
“The boys (herders) heard the cry of a baby and searched the dense thickets until they found it crying. The child was still in a shuka. It was obvious that the child had been left there to die,” she said.
Months earlier, another group of residents walking to Kyambalasi from Makongo found a foetus in a carton box.
A general view of Makongo forest along the Machakos-Wote highway, where the body of Campbell Scott was dumped in this photo taken on February 25, 2025.
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group
Joseph Kioko, a welder in Kyambalasi, told the Daily Nation that the finding of the foetus made residents conclude that Makongo forest is haunted.
“None of the bodies found was a local. The ones killing these people obviously know that Makongo forest will be a perfect place to hide the bodies and their crimes,” Mr Kioko said.
The finding of Scott’s body reawakened the fears of locals after some normality had returned to their township, Benard Mwangangi, a trader in Kiniu said.
According to Mr Mwangangi, whenever such an incident happens, security agents promise more patrols.
Directorate of Criminal Investigations homicide detectives at the crime scene in Makongo forest along the Machakos-Wote highway on February 25, 2025 where the body of Campbell Scott was found.
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group
“This is not the first time a body has been found here. The fact that the stretch through the forest is deserted encourages criminals to throw bodies there. We do not feel safe. A year cannot end without a body being found in the forest,” he said.
The deadly stretch is between Kola police station – just before one gets to Makongo – and Mukuyuni police station, a few kilometres after Kyambalasi.
Missing British national Campbell Scott, who arrived in Kenya on February 14, 2024 to attend a three-day conference.
Photo credit: Pool
Mr Muasa and other locals say the two stations are not sufficient to secure the area and urges the government to consider setting up a patrol base between Kola and Mukuyuni.
“Night time is scary. The dumping of bodies here shows that criminals know this area is not secured. We are afraid anything can happen to us. It is time the government ends this,” he said.
Asked by the Daily Nation if police have received reports of dumping of bodies in Makongo forest, Makueni Sub-County Criminal Investigations Officer Benard Rono and County Police Commander Alice Kimeli declined to talk.
For locals, every nightfall carries the promise of morbid possibilities – possibilities that have in recent years haunted them and changed their way of lives as soon as the sun sets.
