Rescue divers from Bomet County have wowed many with their skills and capabilities of saving lives wherever drowning emergency cases are reported within the region and outside its boundaries.
They have acted swiftly in many instances before they received professional aqua diving skills and training from sponsors who have identified their essential service to society.
Last year 18 divers from the group were sponsored by the Kenya Red Cross in collaboration with Savage wilderness adventures, where they went through aqua driving and thrilling exercise at Amalo River in Bomet.
The training exercise was aimed at equipping these divers with professional skills to help them when saving lives and reducing personal risks to their lives in the course of their duties.
Bomet County Governor Dr. Hillary Barchok in a past event this month further equipped the group and pledged that his administration will put in place resources to formally employ them.
“Here in our County, we have the best divers in the country who have participated in different rescue missions, we have equipped them with new 47 diving gears including the newly acquired cylinders for them to perform their duties effectively without endangering their lives,” said Dr. Barchok during the handover of new assorted PPEs to the disaster management.
Other counties like Siaya under the leadership of Governor Amoth Rasanga has sourced the services of these professional divers to help them locate bodies of missing loved ones who were swept away by the ravaging floods.
They were previously involved in deadly missions. In the year 2017 the ill-fated chopper carrying communication officers attached to Nakuru senator plunged into Lake Nakuru national park and their services were needed.
In conjunction with other rescue teams present in the operation area, Bomet rescuers team retrieved the bodies of the victims that perished in the accident.
However much these divers have saved lives, they are living in poverty, in most cases, as they offer their services on compassionate basis without proper stipulated formulae of compensation for their services.
By Lamech Arisa
