Residents of Lari constituency called the police about a suspected bomb when they noticed a black clothes bag left unattended at Nyambare trading centre.
Its presence caused tension, forcing boda boda operators to move far from their normal stage, while pedestrians gave the street a wide berth.
But it later emerged the bag was allegedly thrown out of a bus by a man who had disagreed with his wife on Friday at dawn. The bus was headed to Western. The man allegedly told his wife to go back to Nairobi and when she refused, he stopped the bus and threw out her bag.
The bag was spotted by boda boda operators and residents who called the police.
“We called the police at around 10am when we realised that no one was coming to collect the bag. We spotted the bag at around 6am,” Peter Kimani said.
“We even suspected it was bomb. No one knew the motive of the person who left it there. We only heard that a bus was spotted there and then it left heading to towards Nakuru,” he added.
DCI officers led by their boss Mugo Mithamo arrived and started investigating it and discovered women's and children's clothes, diapers and nappies, towels and other personal effects in the bag. It was taken to Lari police station.
Mithamo said a woman came to their station reporting the missing bag. However, she didn’t reveal to the police about the alleged disagreement with her husband, he said.
Mithamo said the woman realised the bag was not in the bus while they were at Nakuru and decided to alight with her two children.
“She said she suspected the bag was left at Nyambare, where the bus had stopped, and came back to check for it. She asked residents and was told it was collected by the police. She came, identified it and her children’s clothes and we gave it to her. Some diapers and nappies had been used,” the DCI officer said.
The woman headed back to Nairobi after she was given the bag.
Mithamo thanked the public for reporting the abandoned bag.