Keeping guard, as swimmers enjoy the beach

By Ernest Ndunda

It is a typical, humid and sultry Mombasa afternoon and the Jomo Kenyatta Beach in North Coast is teeming with fun seekers.

Half of a crowd of about 1,000 people are in the water either swimming, playing or floating on inflated tyre tubes.

Unknown to many, the scene is one of the most dangerous entertainment spots at the coast.

Every year, police say, about 20 people drown along the coastal beaches.

Mr Ismail Mohammed (right) and Mr Francis Menza, lifeguards at the public beach. Photos: Govedi Asutsa/Standard

But now, those swimming at the busy Jomo Kenyatta Beach where activity runs 24 hours can revel at ease, as professional lifeguards have taken up watch.

A group of youth have formed a lifeguard unit in Mombasa to monitor and rescue swimmers in trouble at the public beach and the Mombasa coastline. On such a sunny day as this, three months ago, they performed their first quick response rescue and won the admiration of those who had watched what looked like a helpless situation.

Mr Francis Menza, who heads the rescue team, remembers a case where a Standard Six pupil from Voi accompanied by her colleagues for a swimming outing at the beach started drowning.

He says the girl’s colleagues panicked and started shouting and alerted them. They jumped into the water and pulled her out, still conscious.

"It was Saturday, March 14. The moon was full and often at such times the tide was high with a strong current running southbound," Menza recalls.

"At 5.45pm a group of boys aged between seven and ten ran up to the lifeguard tower base. They reported to me that their friend had drowned," Menza narrates.

"We rushed to the scene and found the boy had been pulled out of the water, but was unconscious and without a pulse. I knew he was very close to death. We immediately administered mouth to mouth resuscitation, but he was still out," he recalls.

"After several minutes the boy regained consciousness, we checked him over and took him to the tower base to rest and be monitored," Menza says.

"It transpired that the boy, Soke Kioko, 10, and his five friends had spent the afternoon at the beach unaccompanied by any adult. The boy recovered well and his parents were called to take him home.

The parents were grateful for the rescue and congratulated the lifeguards.

Another case was of a 17-year-old girl being trained to swim by her friend, who was not a good swimmer. A lifeguard on patrol sensed all was not well and had to leap through strong waves to reach the drowning teenager.

"It is the kind of rescue which gives a lot of satisfaction, to know that someone was dying, but you helped bring them back," Menza says.

Sponsored

The Crisis Response Development Foundation, a non-profit organisation sponsored by the Royal National Life Boat Institute of UK and St Johns Ambulance, helps the lifeguards in their work.

Many people who have had mishaps lately at the public beach are glad that the group is at work. The lifeguard unit, formed a year ago after the members graduated with an international certificate in first aid and rescue, has become part of the beach security and safety unit.

Before the formation of the group, cases of drowning at the public beaches were many, especially during holidays.

Menza, also the lifeguards’ team captain, says since the inception of the group, dozens of swimmers have been saved while drifting to danger or when they raise a distress call.

"We keenly monitor single swimmers to detect if they are good in swimming or if they may need help when they drift," says Menza.

"Every morning as we prepare to come to work we check weather reports for high and low tides and for wind flow," he adds.

Apart from saving swimmers from drowning, the lifeguards re-unite lost children at the beach with their parents or guardians.

"It is very easy to detect a swimmer in distress, they shout and wave arms," adds the lifeguard.

He says Kenya Commercial Bank constructed a high platform from where the lifeguards monitor swimmers using binoculars.

Injured swimmers

"We sometimes come across swimmers cut by objects or attacked by jelly fish. We also administer first aid to nose-bleeding swimmers, most of them affected by the heat," says Menza, 34, flanked by Khamis Amadi, a member of the lifeguards.

Menza says his group has saved three lives this year.

"If it were not for our quick response, three lives could have been lost," he says.

"If you respond fast in any drowning case, life can be saved. The tongue of a drowning person rolls back and makes the breathing system collapse leading to unconsciousness," he says.