Is it a bomb? Is it a plane crash? No, it’s space junk.

An eerie rustling sound followed by a boom startled Kenyan villagers relaxing with family and friends on a recent afternoon.

Stephen Mangoka, a 75-year-old farmer from Makoko village in Makweni County, told the BBC, “It sounded like a bomb, I was shocked.

“I looked up at the sky and there was no smoke. Nothing.

“I reached the road to find out if there had been an accident. Nothing else. When someone told me that the sky Something has fallen from.”

In fact, a large round metal object had fallen from above onto the farmland near a dry river bank – and it was heating up.

“We found a big piece of metal that was very red so we had to wait for it to cool down before anyone could get to it,” said Anne Kununa, who told us she owns the land where it was found. This thing fell.

It took about two hours for the giant ring to cool and turn gray – but it was already a sensation as people flocked to see it.

The rest of that Monday afternoon – with few people working as it was the day before New Year’s Eve – the crowd came to see the big metal ring.

It was like selfie central, people came to pose with it and there were great discussions about what it could be.

Local authorities in Makweni County – about 115 kilometers (70 miles) southeast of the capital Nairobi – were notified.

The Kenya Space Agency (KSA) then heard about it and arranged to come and investigate the next day.

But such was the fame of the object that the villagers of Mukuko feared that it would be stolen overnight.

Together with the local officers, some of them took turns standing guard and lighting fires nearby. They wanted to keep away potential scrap dealers and other people who wanted to make money out of curiosity.

It is said to weigh more than 500kg (1,102lb) – the same as an adult horse – and has a diameter of around 2.5m (8ft), roughly the size of a four-seater children’s merry-go-round. is

With daylight came more spectators on New Year’s Eve – followed by the KSA team and the media.

Mukoku had never seen such activity. When the object was removed by the KSA later that day, the sound raised concerns among the villagers as to what had happened.

KSA said its initial assessments showed the object was a “separation ring” from a space launch rocket.

“Such objects are typically designed to burn up as they re-enter Earth’s atmosphere or fall over unoccupied areas such as oceans,” its statement said the next day.

No one was injured in the fall, but some people in Mukuko began to complain that nearby houses were damaged by the impact of the crash.

Christine Kyunga, who lives a kilometer away from the accident site, showed us cracks in the concrete of some buildings in her compound. He said they appeared after the accident.

Other neighbors alleged that the structural integrity of their homes was also affected – allegations that have yet to be confirmed.

“The government needs to find the owners of this stuff and compensate those affected,” Mukoku resident Benson Motoko told the BBC.

There were reports in the local media that some residents had started complaining of feeling unwell after being exposed to the metal ring, although there was no confirmation from the people we visited – nor the authorities. or from KSA.

However, Mr Mutuku said there were concerns about the long-term effects of potential space radiation.

“This is a space object and we have heard in other similar incidents that the effects of radiation are affecting future generations and there is fear in this community.”

However, later tests conducted by the Kenya Nuclear Regulatory Authority revealed that the metal ring contained radiation. The levels were higher than the area in which it was found, but they were not at levels harmful to humans.

Engineers at KSA, which was established in 2017 to promote, coordinate and manage space-related activities in the East African nation, are conducting other tests to learn more about the object.

The Director General of KSA said that it was fortunate that there was no significant damage when the object hit the ground.

“The ultimate responsibility for any damage or injury caused by a space object rests with the state under whose jurisdiction the operator launched the object,” Brigadier Hilary Kipkosge told the BBC.

According to the Outer Space Treaty, under the supervision of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, “States shall be responsible for damage caused by their space objects”.

“[The ring] There is a common thing in many rockets and many space objects so it is difficult to attribute it to a specific rocket or space object but we have leads but as I said our investigation is not conclusive,” Brigadier Kipkosge said.

The BBC showed images of the object to the UK Space Agency to get their experts’ views.

“The most plausible thing it could be is an upper stage separation ring from an Ariane rocket in 2008,” said its launch director Matt Archer.

“The satellites are fine, but the main body of the rocket has passed and gone out of orbit.”

Ariane was Europe’s main rocket launch vehicle, helping to put more than 230 satellites into orbit before being retired in 2023.

It seems that the Separation Ring has been circling the Earth for 16 years before unexpectedly appearing in Mukoku.

This is not the first time space junk has appeared in East Africa.

Just a year and a half ago, some suspected space debris fell on several villages in western Uganda.

And a few days earlier, on January 8, there were unconfirmed reports of space debris in the skies over northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia.

As the space industry grows, it is predicted that such incidents will become more frequent – and African governments may need to invest in ways to detect this fast-moving space debris.

NASA estimates that there are over 6,000 tons of space debris currently in orbit.

There are many different estimates of the chances of such a junk killing someone, But most are in the one in 10,000 range..

Such statistics are of little comfort to Mukuko residents, who can’t help but wonder what damage the ring could have done if it had landed in the center of the village instead of a farming area.

“We need an assurance from the government that this will not happen again,” said Mr Mutuku.