Bodies of mother and daughter in Likoni ferry tragedy finally ‘sighted’ – VIDEO
Divers involved in the search of bodies of the two victims of the ferry tragedy at Likoni Channel say they have sighted them under the water.
The divers are now planning to retrieve the vehicle from under the water.
It has taken 11 days for the recovery team to get a breakthrough in the search for the vehicle with the bodies of the two victims.
35-year-old Mariam Kighenda and her 4-year-old daughter Amanda Mutheu drowned in the Indian Ocean after their vehicle, a Toyota Isis, reversed and slid off the MV Harambee ferry which was midstream.
However, according to Government Spokesperson Col (Rtd) Cyrus Oguna, it still remains to be proved if indeed the sighted vehicle is the same one which plunged into the ocean.
“We cannot confirm with certainty that the vehicle is among the objects located at the two spots,” Oguna said while addressing journalists at Likoni Ferry Channel on Wednesday afternoon.
“However, we are hopeful that by end of Wednesday (October 9) or early Thursday (October 10), we will have verified what those objects are,” he said.
SEARCH OPERATION
“We are using the elimination method. The divers spotted and photographed what they believed to be the car, but we have to analyse the photos to determine if indeed it is the car. We also have to make out the number plates,” he added.
On Tuesday evening, the Kenya Navy announced the sighting of an ‘unnatural’ disturbance in the water following the deployment of Advanced System Remote Operated Cameras.
The head of the recovery operation, Col (Rtd) Lawrence Gituma, had on Tuesday said the new technology would enable them to narrow down the search for the bodies of Kighenda and Mutheu to a 300m radius out of the 1.2km radius search area earlier identified.
As of Tuesday morning, the team had been left with four possible locations to find the sunken vehicle.
On Monday, eight divers arrived from South Africa to help in the search operation, joining the multi-agency team that comprised divers and other experts from Kenya Navy, Kenya Ferry Services Ltd, Kenya Ports Authority, the Kenya Coast Guard service and Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute.