Juja Road, Nairobi closed for hours after police discover an Improvised Explosive Device (IED)

NAIROBI, KENYA: Police are investigating the origin of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that was found planted on the roadside at Mlango Kubwa area, Nairobi.

Juja Road was closed for hours Monday morning as experts from Bomb Disposal Unit arrived there to safely carry away the IED.

Another IED was later found in Pangani area. The IED had been planted at a roadside near the Kirima flats.

Police say they are yet to know those who planted the device there and that they were alerted by the public who saw a freshly dug area.

The device was found near where another one had been found earlier this year in the wake of increasing IEDs. The officers carried it away for disposal as a crowd surged there.

Starehe OCPD Baraza Wabomba said they are yet to know the origin of the device.

“It has been taken away for safe detonation and analysis. We were alerted by good people in the area,” said Wabomba.

The officers from CID headquarters arrived there with robots and managed to carry away the device as a huge crowd watched. The officers later said the device was harmless.

“Whoever assembled it had an idea but it is harmless. No cause for alarm,” said an officer who asked not to be named.

Witnesses said the scene was cleared and motorists allowed to use the road at about 7 am.

The return of the device at a time when there is a punitive proposed security law and specifically on terrorism is suspect, a witness there said.

“We have been at peace but we do not know how it came here,” said a witness who expressed fear the issue would see a return of police harassment.

Mlango Kubwa is near Eastleigh where residents had been complaining of being harassed by the police over terror claims.