Desperate Kenya seeks South Africa’s help to retrieve ferry victims

Transport CS James Macharia with Kenya Ferry Services chairman Dan Mwazo (right) and other leaders address the press at the Mbaraki wharf in Mombasa yesterday. [Maarufu Mohamed, Standard]

Kenya has now turned to South Africa for help to retrieve a car and its two occupants trapped on the bed of the Indian Ocean since September 29.

In a sign of growing government concern over the adverse publicity and public anger for its unexplained failure to recover the corpses and wreckage, the state yesterday deployed Transport CS James Macharia and AU Special Envoy for Infrastructure Raila Odinga to Mombasa to condole with John Wambua -- the grieving widower of Mariam Kighenda -- and support search and retrieval operations.

While Raila called for suspension of dredging activity on the sea shores to foster ocean visibility, CS Macharia declared that all “that needs to be done shall be done” by the state to retrieve the bodies and the car.

Raila described the September 29 accident as “a tragedy for the entire nation and the continent of Africa” and also divulged that the CS “has gone to find out if other help can be found”.

The former premier hailed the recovery team on site, adding that “now is not the time to apportion blame but focus on retrieving the bodies and car.”

Yesterday’s announcement by Macharia that Kenya now wants South African divers to join the operation inflamed suspicions that the Kenya Navy, Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Coast Guard and Kenya Maritime, Fisheries and Research Institute, which are part of the multi-agency team on site, lack equipment and human expertise to engage in the task.

It also followed Friday’s failure by acclaimed Swedish scuba diver and whale shark expert Volker Bassen to locate the wreckage and corpses after diving 32 metres deep. The wreck is believed to be trapped on the sea bed 60-70 metres deep.

Recovery efforts

It was an anti-climax last evening as the Swede who had raised Kenyans’ hope emerged from the ocean with the grim news. But conscious of what this report could mean, Bassen apologised and admitted he had underestimated the gravity of the task when he volunteered to assist recovery efforts for free last week. Dejected officials were openly shocked and speechless as he delivered the news of lack of progress after a 30-minute dive.

Bassen, like other divers, blamed lack of visibility for the difficulty in making recovery even after promising Kenyans he would accomplish the job in just two hours.

“I want to retract on my earlier statement that I would recover the car and the bodies in just two hours. There is zero visibility and channel is very deep,” he said, praising the Kenya Navy divers whom he worked with for being “brilliant”. Yesterday it was the CS’s time to pledge renewed efforts by the state to bring closure to this tragedy, less than three weeks to Mashujaa Day national celebrations at the adjacent Mama Ngina Drive.

“All that needs to be done shall be done. We had an expert from Sweden and we are having others from South Africa who are coming in the next few days to join the rescue operation,” said CS Macharia.

Key challenges

He acknowledged that the current team of divers involved in the recovery operations has encountered several challenges to enable smooth operations.

“We have travelled here to join the affected families and show them that we are all united in this unfortunate happening. As a government we firmly state that we shall give our best to ensure that this sad incident is brought to its finality and the victims bodies recovered,” said Macharia, who was accompanied by Kenya Ferry Service chairman Dan Mwazo and board member, Philip Ndolo.

He said they held a fruitful meeting with the bereaved family. Macharia said the state has received useful feedback from the recovery team, led by Colonel Lawrence Githuma.