Family demands justice after son drowns in hotel's swimming pool

Peterson Nene, a Grade 5 pupil at Brain Child Academy in Ngegu, lost his life during a Sunday family outing. [Fidelis Kabunyi, Standard]

A family from Kangoya village is demanding justice and answers following the drowning of their 12-year-old son at Arbbor Hotel along Kamiti Road.

Peterson Nene, a Grade 5 pupil at Brain Child Academy, drowned during a Sunday family outing. His aunt aunt Winnie Wanjiku, said they checked into the hotel on Sunday, October 18, immediately after church.

Nene requested permission from his aunt to go swimming. “I tried to convince him not to swim since we were not prepared and didn’t have the costumes,” the aunt recalled. “He persuaded me, and I took him and told the lifeguard to check on him. The lifeguard also gave him a short to change into”, she said.

At around 5pm, Nene emerged from the swimming pool shivering from the cold. She instructed him to bask in the sun as their house help watched.

However, the house help briefly left the boy unattended. Seizing the moment, Nene returned to the pool, where he drifted into the deep end and drowned. Realising what had happened, the house help ran back shouting the aunt’s name. According to the family, it was other swimmers, rather than the hotel staff, who retrieved Nene’s body from the water.

The minor was rushed to Kiambu Level 5 Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The boy’s grieving father, David Gichohi, said he had permitted the aunt to take Nene out while he attended a church meeting, intending to join them later.

“I lost my wife, Nene’s mother, years ago to cancer. The aunt picks him up once in a while, so I had no problem with him joining her,” Gichohi said.

The family has accused the hotel management of negligence. Family spokesperson Phoebe Wairimu revealed that they requested CCTV footage from the management to understand the final moments of the boy’s life, but the hotel declined, claiming the cameras were not operational.

“When the boy drowned, the lifeguard had already left his workstation, and Nene was only saved by other swimmers. How can he leave children in the pool and leave his work? We want to establish what transpired from the footage,” Wairimu said. The incident has been recorded at Kiamumbi Police Station as investigations commence.