Quarry worker in Kiambu encounters colonial-era bomb, a 60MM rocket-propelled grenade

Just a few weeks after Murang’a residents stumbled on a colonial-era bomb, a quarry worker in Kiambu County stumbled on another bomb in Boma area.

Suspicious of the item he discovered, the worker rushed to the area chief who identified the metallic object as a 60MM rocket-propelled grenade.

James Mwaura the chief in the area informed senior sleuths at the bomb disposal unit of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), who uprooted and later detonated the bomb, this is the third bomb to be discovered by residents in the region.

On April 27, officers detonated another bomb in the same area found in a grazing field which was discovered by herders.

In early May residents of Kigumo, Murang’a County scrambled to catch a glimpse of what they had thought was a giant arrow root but were surprised to find out it was a mortar bomb.

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According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) the bomb had caused tension and forced villagers to seek the help of retired Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) officers.

“The discovery of the bomb brought Ngonda village to a standstill, as bemused villagers milled around the object some claiming in the local dialect, that it was a ‘Karobosta’ i.e a missile, while others claimed that it was an overgrown arrowroot,” wrote the DCI.

According to the DCI the bomb was likely to have been left behind by colonial forces at the height of the colonial resistance in 1953.

“The dangerous military ordinance was most likely left behind by the British forces at the height of the Mau Mau uprising in 1953, when sections of Mt Kenya and Aberdare forests suffered aerial bombardment, to flush out Mau Mau fighters,” the sleuths said.