Grenade found at a Mombasa church, safely diffused

An explosive said to have a high capacity of destruction potential was on Saturday safely diffused by bomb experts at a church compound in Mombasa.

The explosive was reported to have been a hand grenade strategically left by a presumed terrorist  at the Jesus Healing and Miracle Ministry International’s compound. The incident drew a large crowd of curious onlookers as well as causing fears among the residents of the area.

According to one worshipper who witnessed the incident, a young man aged between 18 and 25, wearing jeans and T-shirt and carrying a rucksack on his back passed by the church at about 11 am. He then pretended to have a short call before carefully placing the rucksack on the ground, and slowly removing ‘something’ from it.

Afterwards, he almost immediately vanished from the church compound into the neighbouring villages.

Later, three students from the Tononoka Secondary School passed by and noticed a strange object lying on the grass. After inspecting it, they started shouting as they warned everyone to keep off the area.

According to the witness, identified as Mama Isaac, some mechanics who came by took off immediately after seeing the object.

She then sensed danger and called a nearby police station whose officers arrived at the scene within ten minutes and cordoned off the area that had by then attracted a huge crowd of curious onlookers.

At 11.40am the Anti-Terrorist Police Unit (ATPU) arrived at the scene and inspected the explosive device. They declared it was dangerous to move the grenade whose safety pin had already been removed.

Bomb experts arrived at the scene at around 3.15 pm and started the process of detonating the grenade.Ten minutes later, the explosive was safely detonated.