A Kenyan official has blamed devices that Britain might have planted during colonial rule for the deaths of four children killed in a field where they were grazing livestock.

Mandera governor Ali Roba has asked security agents to clear the fields of any devices from before Kenya gained independence in 1963 following the latest deaths on Saturday.

Five children between the ages of 12 and 17 were killed in the same area of northern Kenya on December 20 while playing with an explosive device they found while grazing livestock.

Many children living in the arid and semi-arid regions of Kenya often tend to their family’s livestock after school. Some are forced to drop out of school to do so.