Grief engulfed Ilkirakarien village in Narok East Sub County after a 11-year-old boy slipped and drowned in a borehole while fetching water.
According to Narok County Police Commander Riko Ngare, when the boy’s father realised that his son had fallen in the borehole, he risked his life to enter the borehole to rescue him but was unable to come out.
The uncle to the deceased also risked his life to follow his brother in the borehole to see what was happening, when he realised the two had been stuck in the borehole, but unfortunately, he too was trapped inside it.
This forced the mother to the deceased to raise an alarm, alerting the villagers, who came in large numbers to witness the incident.
One of the villagers volunteered to get into the borehole to see what was happening but unfortunately fainted and was quickly rescued by the neighbours as he had a rope tied around his waist.
When the police arrived, they managed to rescue the two male adults who had been stuck in the pit in critical condition and retrieve the body of the boy.
The victims were rushed to Narok County Referral Hospital, where they are receiving treatment, and the body is being preserved in the same hospital’s mortuary.
Following the incident, area Member of County Assembly Nickson Kisotu blamed the County Government for the lack of ambulance services, saying they had to look for private vehicles to transport the victims to the hospital.
Kisotu wondered why the county government had withdrawn the ambulance services that were being operated by the Kenya Red Cross Society, saying he will bring up the matter in the county assembly when the House resumes next month.
“We do not want to see a repeat of what we have seen today. If the rescue team had arrived here early enough, maybe even the boy would have been saved,” he said.
By Ann Salaton