Colonial-era mortar bomb discovered in Murang’a

A mortar bomb believed to have been used by British colonial army during the Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s has been unearthed in Kigumo, Murang’a County.

Detectives from the Forensic Bomb Disposal and Harzadous Materials Unit say that the weapon was discovered by a farmhand in Ngonda village on Sunday, May 8, causing panic among residents.

“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,” the Directorate of Criminal Investigations said.

It took detectives from the DCI National Forensic Laboratory who confirmed that object was an 84mm mortar bomb.

The George Kinoti-led 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 on Monday, May 9.