Three Live Bombs Found in Area Where Blast Killed Five

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

Walter Menya

21 May 2011

Nairobi — The three bombs were safely detonated as the operation code named Kinga Maisha, entered its seventh day on Thursday.Operation Kinga Maisha is a response to the death of five boys – Elijah Panai, Isaiah Sunkuya, Boniface Mesenka, Stephen Letuya, and Joel Sintamei -in Ol Maroroi two weeks ago, when an explosive device they were playing with went off.

It is being conducted by soldiers from Nanyuki’s 10th Engineers Battalion, working in collaboration with the Kajiado North District Security and Intelligence.

Three teams make up the group: battle area clearance, which searches for the objects, the explosive ordnance disposal team and the risk education team, which is educating the local people.

It is estimated that the soldiers might continue the work for more than the 30 days initially allocated.”We had planned for 30 days but the period will be entirely dictated by the activities and discoveries on the ground,” task commander George Owinow of the Engineers Brigade said during a media briefing in Oloishooibor area on Thursday.

“The upper limit would be three months and the minimum is one month.”By Wednesday, the Battle Area Clearance team had covered 2.792 square kilometres of the 128 it is expected to cover. The risk education team has also educated an estimated 2,900 residents.

Brigadier Owinow said the team’s work was guided by the International Mine Action Standards. “We want to make the area habitable,” he asserted. Among the items the team has recovered are live 84mm projectiles, mortar bodies, fins, tails and fuses.

Brig Owinow said some of them had never been used by the Kenya defence forces.

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