Hopes of retrieving bodies of Mariam Kigenda and her 4-year-old daughter, Amanda Mutheu, who were aboard a vehicle that plunged into the sea on Sunday, were further thwarted on Wednesday after search operations failed to bear fruit for the fourth day in a row.
This as the government dispatched Transport Principal Secretary Esther Koimett to coordinate the recovery operation which has turned out to be some sort of a “trial and error mission”.
Engineers from Chinese firm handling the Kipevu Oil Terminal project brought in their underwater cameras and scanned through a dark sandy underwater with absolutely poor visibility.
The images captured underwater painted a picture of “trial and error” even though the government agencies insisted they were optimistic about recovery.
Koimett, who addressed media on Wednesday evening, said there were no positive results for the search mission in five out of 14 spots which were earlier suspected to be possible locations where the bodies and vehicle wreckage could be found.
She assured that the government has set up a command centre to coordinate and share information with public even as anger among Kenyans and despair among family and friends continued to mount at the recovery scene.
“The government is committed to the recovery exercise, we want to retrieve the bodies and the vehicle wreckage as soon as possible,” she said.
Koimett observed that powerful ocean currents coupled with poor visibility beneath the ocean was hindering the search operation.
“Underwater search is not an ordinary operation. There is darkness beneath the waters, the current is strong, the terrain below is also hilly and there are also valleys… At the same time this channel is busy. So, the exercise is a tricky one,” she said.
Earlier, government spokesman Col. Cyrus Oguna said that the recovery exercise is delicate and could take more time.
“Aerial photos taken by plane detected metals in 14 possible areas where we were expecting to find the bodies plus the wreckage… However, there was nothing found in five of the locations. We have therefore narrowed down the search to a smaller area of nine locations where we believe the bodies could be located, ” Oguna said.
Oguna called for patience saying due to the poor visibility, robots are being used to locate the bodies and the car.
“The divers are not relying on their vision, they are relying on touch and it is on that touch they can be able to interpret if what they are touching is a vehicle. The robots direct them where to touch and go,” said Oguna
Remarks by the two were in clear contradiction with Kenya Ferry Services (KFS) Managing Director, Bakari Gowa, who on Tuesday reported that the bodies and the wreckage had been located at two points underwater.
In his press briefing on Tuesday, Gowa said the bodies and wreckage were detected in two spots at 75 feet and 173 feet which were the search focus.
The search mission is being conducted by a team of divers and spotters from Kenya Navy, Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, Kenya Ports Authority as well as local divers hired by the bereaved family.
But on Wednesday, tension rocked the search mission after government authorities ordered privately commissioned divers- Kenya Rescue Divers under Musa Sila – to withdraw from the search for unknown reasons.
This is after the private divers hired by the family told media they had not located the car nor the bodies.
However, KFS Chairman, Dan Mwazo, intervened to allow the divers continue with the mission.
Kenya Navy and KPA teams are coordinating the operation by use of underwater camera enabled robots which are immersed in water to capture the underwater world in an operation which is monitored via a laptop screen by spotters in a motorboat afloat.
On Wednesday, the search mission was suspended shortly before midday as divers allowed waters to calm before resuming again at around 3.00pm.
KFS cleared the channel in the morning and evening hours to give the divers room for clear visibility.
Col. Lawrence Gituma, who is leading the Kenya Navy divers in the operation, said sea traffic at the channel will continue to be interrupted until the exercise is over.
Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho, who visited the scene of the accident for the first time on four days, was booed as tried to address hundreds of residents who pitched camp at the scene.
The governor, who remained silent since the incident happened, asked government agencies to hasten the operation.
“We understand that the complexity of the search operations is the reason for the delay, and, therefore, we are asking for patience. We are part of the multi-agency team involved in the search operations,” Joho said.
Haki Africa executive director, Hussein Khalid, said the poor recovery exercise was an indictment on the side of the government as it shows lack on preparedness in disaster management.
