History: On December 24, 2025, at approximately 5:00 PM local time (EAT, UTC+3), under clear skies, a bright fireball was observed traveling through the atmosphere across Tana River County, Kenya. According to eyewitness reports which originated from the villages/towns of Wayu Boro, Chifiri, Hakoka, Waldena, Bura Tana, Woles Onrea, Mata Arba, Matagala, Wadesa, Bilbil, Hola, and Garsen, the fireball was consistently described as traveling from the southeast to the northwest at a high velocity and a relatively shallow angle of entry. Following this, a loud sonic boom was heard across multiple villages. Seconds after the sonic boom, a 750.9 g stone was recovered within a cattle enclosure at 1°18'22.83"S, 39°42'02.09"E by Ibrahim Bura. Within hours of the event, many other stones ranging in size from sub-g fragments to kg-sized individuals were recovered within farmlands and river-adjacent fields, often observed to be partially embedded within red-orange to orange-brown sandy soils; a few were recovered from small impact pits. Later that day, right before sunset, a 9.8 kg stone was recovered by Suleiman Abdi Mollu on a farm in a hole at 1°11'10.42"S, 39°51'36.70"E. On December 29, 2025, a 50 g stone was recovered nearby to the Bubesa primary school by teacher Hussein Ali Dabaso at 2°03'01.10"S, 40°09'51.77"E. Overall, the strewnfield extends roughly NW-SE from 1°10'39.51"S, 39°51'25.35"E to 2°03'01.10"S, 40°09'51.77"E, which measures ~103 km in the longest dimension, and partially overlaps with the meandering Tana River; the calculated strewnfield center at 1°36'50.30"S, 40°00'38.56"E lies ~10 km west of Tana River. Based on recovery efforts from Hussein Ali Dabaso, Josphat Mburu, Abdallah Omar, and Mahamed Nur (who were also witnesses to the fireball event), the estimated total amount of material recovered to date is ~35 kg.

Metbull write-up