The body of a five-year-old boy who drowned in River Tana on Sunday in Malindi ya Ngwena village, Galole constituency has been retrieved by local volunteers.
The boy and his siblings had accompanied their aunt to fetch water from the river for domestic use when the tragic incident occurred.
“We were at home with my sister-in-law after lunch we went to the farm and then we came back together with my five children and my sister-in-law’s three children. I took a nap after coming out of the farm because of fatigue,’’ narrated Hamaro Makadani, the boy’s aunt with sorrowful eyes.
She added: “My sister-in-law went to the river to fetch water. The children told her they wanted to take a bath. I advised her to bathe the little two boys.”
The two little boys left at the river banks were excited to see their fellow children swimming. They also took off their clothes and got in the water without the knowledge of their aunt.
“The one who came out of the water came running to tell me that his colleague had drowned. We struggled to save him, there were many children in the water who tried to find him in vain,” said Makadani.
Omar Buya, a volunteer diver appealed to the County Government to supply modern rescue equipment to residents living along River Tana as they risked their lives in the crocodile-infested river to search and retrieve the body.
“The search itself is risky, the river has Crocodiles and Hippopotamus, we walk with long sticks, every sub-county should have trained people with rescue equipment, and we are asking the government to intervene. We encountered numerous challenges in searching for the body,” said Ali Ade after they retrieved the body on Monday.
By Sadik Hassan
