Two brothers are nursing critical injuries after accidentally detonating an abandoned explosive in Narok county on Saturday, December 10.
According to area police officers, the two boys, aged 12 and 6, detonated the explosive while looking after their fathers’ goats in Kikurrukur village of Majimoto sub-location, Narok County.
Locals stated that the boys triggered the explosive before it went off after discovering it in the grazing field.
The two brothers were rushed to Narok County Referral Hospital in critical condition.
According to law enforcement officers, the two sustained injuries from the exploding shrapnel on the legs and eyes.
The area was believed to have been a training ground for military training in the 1980s.
Following the incident, officers from the nearby Kenya Air Force Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Narok West sent a team of a bomb detonating experts.
However, the local police officers warned residents against attempting to detonate explosives while grazing their animals.
In November 2022, police detonated about 70-year-old colonial-era bomb inside Aberdare National Park near Treetops Hotel in Nyeri.
The bomb was believed to have been dropped from the air at the onset of the freedom struggle and by the British military as they fought Mau Mau fighters who hid in the forests.
"For the past few weeks, experts have detonated four such bombs that are commonly found in the areas around Mount Kenya and Aberdare forests," David Chege, a bomb expert attached to DCI in Nyeri, stated.
