Police destroy live grenade unearthed in garden near hospital

Bomb Disposal Unit officers carry away an explosive device found buried in a garden

By CYRUS OMBATI

Nairobi, Kenya: There was panic at a private residence off Ngong Road, Nairobi when a gardener discovered a live grenade buried in a shallow garden next to where children usually play.

The grenade was discovered by a worker who was working on a flower garden in the morning hours Thursday and later alerted police.

The explosive devise was buried in the garden of the house that is next to the Nairobi Women's Hospital, Adams Arcade branch.

Officers from CID’s Bomb Disposal Unit arrived there minutes later and carried it away in a container while covered with soil.

Unit head Mr Eliud Langat confirmed the grenade was real and could have caused death had it been tampered with or triggered.

“It was a live grenade but of old model. We do not know who took it there and the motive behind it,” said Langat.

Langat said they safely destroyed the grenade later on.

A guard at the compound Kizito Ambalwa said the gardener was busy at the garden when he stumbled on the grenade.

"He hit it a bit to remove a coat [of soil] on it before he carried it to an open place. He then called the owner of the house and guards here who confirmed it was a grenade. We called police,” said Ambalwa.

The garden had been tilled two weeks ago and left unattended until Wednesday when the gardener was again told to work on it.

The owner of the house Samuel Mogusu said he had not gone to the garden for many weeks. He said he did not know how the device got there.

“We also do not know those behind it and that is why we called police to help in ensuring we are safe,” said Mogusu.

The incident came in the wake of increased terror threats in the country amid police operations in Nairobi and Mombasa. On Wednesday night, police arrested 200 more suspects in Eastleigh as part of efforts to contain the threats.

This brought to more than 1,000, the number of suspects arrested so far since Monday night when terrorists hurled Improvised Explosive Devices into food joints and killed six people and wounded 31 others.

Of those arrested since, none have been confirmed to have participated in the attacks.

Police boss David Kimaiyo said they are still profiling the suspects, most of whom do not have identification documents.

“Those without identification documents were charged with the offence of being in Kenya illegally/failing to register. Students were released. Some are waiting for the verification of their documents and we are holding others for further interrogation.”

Among those who are still in custody is a suspect identified as Sheikh Mahat Omar, aged about 55, who was arrested with two grenades in his house in Eastleigh. Police say they are looking for 18 more grenades that Omar and his wife are said to have had before a raid was conducted in their house.

Police also recovered two IEDs in the area on Tuesday night in the ongoing operations.

Kimaiyo has appealed to the public to continue giving information on any possible terror threat.