Detectives attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) Forensic Bomb Disposal and Hazardous Materials section are in possession of an 84mm mortar bomb that was discovered by a farmhand in Kigumo, Murang’a county yesterday.
According to DCI, the mortar bomb is believed to have been used by British colonial army during the Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s.
“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’ that is a missile, while others claimed that it was an overgrown arrow root,” read DCI report.
The villagers attempted unsuccessfully to identify the object with the help of a retired military commander who lives about 3 kilometres distant, but his phone went unanswered.
Fortunately, the area chief learned of the discovery and promptly contacted investigators from Kigumo’s Ngonda police station.
Detectives from the DCI National Forensic Laboratory confirmed that the object was an 84mm mortar bomb.
The agency noted that the weapon was most likely left behind by the British forces at the height of the Mau Mau rebellion in 1953, when sections of Mt Kenya and Aberdare forests suffered aerial bombardment by the colonial army to flush out Mau Mau fighters.
Bomb experts are set to detonate the missile today.
