Inside KDF Secretly-Launched Operation Ondoa Nanasi

The death of two Wajir girls has brought to focus the need to sanitize areas of Kenya having Unexploded Ordinances (UXO) and other explosive weapons.

The two girls who were grazing their father’s cattle are reported to have picked the grenade and taken it home, mistaking it for a gem.

It did not take long before they started fiddling with the explosive when it detonated to end their lives.

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In 2018, Njilai Lekoloi lost his two sons who had been grazing when they came across an explosive and started playing with it.

While one of his sons did not die on the spot, he was to later succumb to his injuries.

“We heard a loud bang and when the morans ran to the spot found the goats alone in the field and on closer examination they found the two boys – the younger one already dead while the older one had not died still. He recounted to them everything that had happened before he passed away,” narrated Njilai to a local publication.

Two weeks before the two boys died, two other children had their lives cut short after an explosive device in an area they were playing in detonated and killed them on the spot.

Courtesy of the Unexploded ordinances, a boy in Samburu walks in crutches after his legs were ripped apart.

Operation Ondoa Nanasi

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Alarmed by the increased threats of explosion in the area, The Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) launched an Operation dubbed ‘Ondoa Nanasi’ which seeks to comb the areas with UXO and eliminate them.

The January, 28th 2019 operation seeks to eradicate found in military training areas as a result of training activities and war zones as war remnants with some still present around Mt Kenya and Aberdare area with some as old as the second World War.

Major General Ayub G Matiiri, General Officer Commanding Eastern Command, explains that UXOs are explosive weapons such as bombs, shells, missiles, rockets and grenades that have been launched but failed to detonate on impact and still pose a risk of detonating.

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While the General insists the nomads sometimes invade the military areas, he insisted that the operation has to be conducted to its full conclusion.

“These are devices that did not detonate and will stay in that state until they are disturbed. During training, we can fire even 30 rounds at the same time so it is difficult to know which have not exploded. Some sink in soft ground only to resurface after erosion caused by rains,” said Matiiri to a local Media House.

The North-Eastern area has been used for over 40 years for training by both KDF and British Army where it has been used for land and air-based system firings and was also an axis for Italian soldiers during their battle with Ethiopians making it prone to the explosives.

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“In order to enhance peaceful coexistence between the military and the local community, we launched the operation. When the four children lost their lives in November and December we swung into action. Before, there were just isolated cases in far-flung areas,” added Major General Matiiri.

Though admitting that combing for the blinds (bombs that ricochet landing anywhere but not at the intended places and therefore cannot be seen) is not that easy, he said that the military has combed over 90 per cent of the total 375 square kilometres area.

Ignorance responsible for Deaths

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He avers that the situation is further aggravated by the local community’s lack of awareness of the dangers posed by the explosive devices pointing out that the locals use the UXOs in making bangles for their girlfriends, the grenades as bells on goats, tails and fuse on clubs, rocket cylinders as a tool to store arrows and as manyatta posts.

“Some of the explosives are attractive so they pick them but maybe one just wanted small disturbance to detonate and so one of the objectives of this operation is to create awareness of the dangers posed by the UXOs.

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“We engage women to educate the children as they spend the most time with them. We target schools, churches, mosques and manyattas. We have engaged the locals and their leaders together with schools to create public awareness for the last three weeks. We are teaching them on how to handle them by showing them how to identify them, not to play with them but report to the chief if they spot any,” he added.

The Military head, however, said the option of building a fence to protect the military training zone was out of the question as it would further strain relations with locals who would want to graze in the area.

Educating Locals

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Brigadier Isaac Muchendu – the operation leader – opines that they intend to achieve zero casualties or reduce the impact of the explosives which can cause deaths to human beings and animals or injuries like loss of limb or hearing, blindness, shrapnel wounds and internal shock wave injuries.

He told a local publication that some 2, 429 locals had been educated and are now volunteering information on UXOs they may have come across.

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