Bomb materials on sale at only Sh1,000

Commercial explosives, which can be used by terrorists to make bombs, are freely available in Nairobi.

For Sh1,000, the Daily Nation bought enough material to make a bomb powerful enough to blow up a large room. The sale of such substances is supposed to be tightly controlled in law.

The material included what a leading bomb disposal expert described as “a non-electric detonator”, a length of safety fuse and half a kilo of top-grade fertiliser, normally used in flower farms.

Mining industry

Bomb expert Charles Juma said commercial detonators are available for Sh5 in Tanzania, which has a large mining industry. The detonators are readily sold on the black market in Kenya and Uganda as well. In the controlled shops in Nairobi, they cost Sh150.

Commercial explosives are used in mines and quarries and a black market for them has sprung up in Dandora, Kitengela and Ongata Rongai. Mr Juma, who has guarded all Kenyan presidents, said the Uhuru Park explosions may have been caused by home-made bomb made from ingredients available in the black market.

The expert, who has investigated nearly all the blasts in Kenya over the last 35 years, including the embassy and Kikambala bombings, said the detonator and fuse in the suicide vest displayed by Uganda police, were similar to those bought in the black market by the Daily Nation.

A series of powerful explosions went off in Kampala last Sunday as patrons were watching the World Cup Final, killing 76 people and injuring an equal number. An unexploded suicide vest was also found, meaning that the bombers wanted to inflict even more damage. The Somali extremist group, Al Shabaab, has claimed responsibility.

“A fertiliser bomb was used during the Eureka Hotel blast in Nairobi some years back and at Kwavonza in Matuu,” Mr Juma said. Mr Juma demonstrated how, using ammonium nitrate, a fertiliser available in the market in unlimited quantities, a person with some training can make powerful bomb using the detonators and fuses illegally being sold in the country.

Killed a man

He said the fertiliser being sold to homeowners for digging wells and septic tanks in rocky terrain has been nicknamed “mchele” because it looks just like rice. He estimated that the explosives the Daily Nation bought were powerful enough to blow up the room.

Last Saturday, police stopped and killed a man carrying 300 detonators in a basket in Ongata Rongai. He has now been identified as 50-year-old Mr Abdullahi Yusuf Aden. His national identity card showed he was born in Wajir district in 1960. But the ID was issued in Ongata Rongai in 2006.

Residents knew him as a butcher, who also supplied meat for sale to other traders in the Town. After he was killed, police ransacked it in search of “explosives” and after finding nothing, arrested his wife. She has since been released. “Besides being a butcher, he was involved in other criminal operations we’re trying to establish,” said Ngong police commander Simeon Kiragu.

“We found out she did not know anything about her husband and other activities he was involved in,” said Mr Kiragu. Mr Aden was buried on Monday. He was shot near a church compound at Ongata Rongai, at around 11 am. Detectives are still looking for a woman they claim was supposed to receive the basket of detonators from Mr Aden.

A business card belonging to a Wajir businessman, plus documents with logos matching those on the card were found in the same basket. When the Daily Nation called the businessman on Thursday, he said police were yet to contact him. He said he did not know Mr Aden.

“I’ve nothing to hide. I’m a Kenyan and I own a construction company which is genuine and registered. If the CID want to talk to me, I’m okay,” he said.