The Narok County Directorate of Disaster Management has succeeded in retrieving the body of a man who drowned in Ewaso Nyiro River over two weeks ago.
The County Director of Disaster Management Nancy Laboso said the body was retrieved after it was floating on the water and squeezed between heavy logs.
“We received a call from the area chief reporting that the body had been seen floating and trapped in the river. My office mobilized the police and together with the Kenya Red Cross Society, we managed to retrieve it,” she said.
Laboso added that the body was trapped between heavy logs that had been swept by the water from a long distance, an indication that the man could have been swept from a long distance.
The skin of the body was pale and peeling off an indication that it had been in the water for over two weeks.
“We suspect that the man had been swept from a very far distance as even the nearby homesteads could not identify the person nor are there any reports of a missing person,” she said.
However, one of the local elders, Oloishuro Ole Naeni revealed that the river had swept many villagers, whose bodies had been identified and buried accordingly.
Naeni called on the area residents to avoid crossing flooded rivers or bathing beside rivers as they could easily be swept downstream.
The retrieved body was taken to the Narok county referral hospital morgue for preservation awaiting postmortem and identification.
People who have lost their loved one have since been called to visit the police station or the morgue to identify the body.
Over 16 persons have drowned in different parts of the county since the onset of the ongoing enhanced rainfall.
Many parts of the county are still experiencing high rainfall with the meteorological department warning that the heavy downpour will continue being experienced in several parts of the county this week.
By Ann Salaton and Amos Maine
