Kenyan Brothers Make Nearly Sh500,000 After Selling 6Kg Meteorite That Fell on Neighbor’s Farm

On April 24th, 2020, residents of Kombuini, Gatuto and Kimicha villages in Kirinyaga county were sent into panic mode after rocks fell on their farms from the sky.

Witnesses said they saw objects with reddish flames fall from the sky before landing on the ground in a loud thud that sounded like gunshots.

The debris was later confirmed to be meteorites by among other experts, Nairobi-based geologist Vickson Kihima.

“They survive their passage through the atmosphere to reach the earth’s surface at a high speed,” he told The Standard.

One week later, it has emerged that some residents who collected the debris out of curiosity have made good money by selling them. 

Initially, residents who picked the rocks gave them out for free or at a small fee but the prices ballooned after several treasurer hunters visited the villages to buy them.

Two brothers who live near Gatuto Primary School and who collected 6 kilograms of the rocks from a farm belonging to a neighbor are said to have sold them at Sh480,000, Standard Digital reported.

Another man from Kimicha village allegedly pocketed Sh210,000 from the sale of meteorite weighing 7.4kgs.

A meteorite is a fragment of rock or iron from outer space, usually a meteoroid or asteroid, which survives passage through the atmosphere as a meteor to impact the surface of the Earth. 

Meteorites are believed to originate in the asteroid belt between the planets of Mars and Jupiter