Detectives based at the Forensic Bomb Disposal and Harzadous materials unit are in possession of an 84mm mortar bomb that was discovered by a farmhand in Kigumo Murang’a county, today afternoon .
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 arrow root.
So concerned were the villagers that two children were dispatched to the homestead of a retired military officer 3 kilometers away since calls to his phone went unanswered, to come and ascertain whether it was truly a ‘Karobosta’ as claimed by a majority.
Luckily, the area chief got wind of the discovery and called detectives based at Ngonda police station in Kigumo, who responded immediately.
The detectives invited experts from the Forensic Bomb Disposal and Harzadous materials unit, based at the DCI National Forensic Laboratory, who confirmed that object was an 84mm mortar bomb.
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 DCI Bomb experts will sympathetically detonate the bomb tomorrow.
