Explosion kills Kenyan student in border town

A Kenyan student was killed and three of his sibling injured on Sunday evening in the northern town of Mandera after an explosive device they were unknowingly playing with went off in their hands. According to the police, the schools boys, one a secondary student and the others pupils at a local primary school, came across a shining object lying on a graveyard as they were heading home after a playful day at river Dua, which is adjacent to their village of Bulla-Tawakal. "Three boys from the same family age between 15 and 12 collected two objects suspected to be a hand grenades on their way from playing expedition and took home to play with it unknowingly," Mandera east divisional police commander Jackson Rotich said on Monday. "The deceased who was the oldest acquired a hammer upon arrival at home and started playful, hitting the inflammable objects severally unaware of its consequences as his other siblings gathered around him to witness the outcome of what was inside the objects. Then the objects went off injuring the three family members." Rotich said the eldest boy, a form two student at a local secondary, who was the one hammering the explosive devices in bid to open it, died shortly on arrival at Mandera district hospital, where together with his other injured brothers were rushed to for treatment by neighbors. According to an eyewitness, the boys collected the lethal objects from a graveyard after being attracted presumably by its unique design and its glittering display against the sun, before proceeding with them to their homestead where they started playing with it before it went off leaving behind a trail of disaster. Incidents of abandoned explosives devices killing and maiming unsuspected children playing with them are common in the expansive northern region of the country. In July, an elderly woman was killed and her six years old granddaughter seriously injured after an explosive device lying beneath their hut went off.