Jason Kay

Residents of Makuku described hearing an eight-foot-wide metal ring weighing about half a tonne crashing into farmland on the edge of their village just before the end of the year.

Under the UN's Outer Space Treaty, states are liable for any damage caused by their space debris. This object is being examined now by the Kenya Space Agency. Its director, Brigadier Hilary Kipkozge, says it's too early to say exactly where it came from.

Some British space experts believe the ring could have come from a European Ariane rocket that launched a satellite into space in 2008. America's space agency, NASA, estimates there are more than 6,000 tonnes of debris currently in orbit around the Earth,

No one was injured when this object fell from the sky, but some villagers claim their properties were damaged and they've asked the Kenyan government for assurances that nothing like this can happen again.