Four children killed after bomb explodes

Four children were killed and one injured when an bomb they were playing with exploded at a village 25 kilometres north of Ngong township, police said on Sunday

The five children, aged between six and nine, had gone to the grazing field to tether cows when they found the unexploded bomb in Ole Maroroi village, in Ewaso Kedong.

They started playing with it, oblivious of the imminent danger. The bomb exploded, killing the four on the spot and seriously injuring one of them.

Panic gripped the area when they learnt that another group of children had also collected a similar bomb and took to their homestead, about two kilometres from the scene of the explosion.

Ballistic and bomb disposal experts at the scene confirmed that it was a bomb and immediately dispatched another group to collect the one another group of children had taken home.

The experts only found the propellant of the antipersonnel bomb as the body exploded completely The badly mutilated bodies of the young boys were strewn at the scene.

Three of them were brothers while the fourth, the deceased, and the injured were from different families.

A resident, Mr Dickson Ole Ntikoisa said that such unexploded bombs were common in the area. He said that his sister lost her arm when a bomb exploded in the same area.

This has also affected their animals. “Sometimes our cows are killed by stray bullets from the nearby shooting range,” he lamented.

The police, military and some British soldiers normally train at the Ngong Range, which is about 4km from the scene of death. Locals say the range has been in use since 1960s, and they normally collect the bombs and sell to scrap metal dealers.

Deputy Police Spokesman Charles Owino Wahongo confirmed the incident and said that bomb and ballistic experts had taken up the matter. “We shall investigate and also educate the locals on handling suspicious objects they come across,” said Owino.

Source: http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/1158498/-/10xp43sz/-/index.html