Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) on Wednesday morning deployed a robot at the Likoni ferry channel to aid in locating a saloon car that plunged into the Indian Ocean on Sunday.
Several agencies with specialized divers have camped at the Likoni ferry cross channel with a sole mission of locating and retrieving a car that plunged into the Indian Ocean on Sunday.
KPA with a group of divers at the channel deployed an underwater robot at the scene that was transferring live images from the deep waters to a live screen.
In a live video shared on Facebook by Daily Nation, a group of engineers from KPA were seen diving the robot from their boat into the ocean as they keenly monitored the pictures displayed on their computer monitors.
However, they noted that the robot was not transferring clear pictures due to dirty water. It was also being affected by the speed of the ocean currents.
The robot was sunk 40 metres deep but they could still locate the plunged car.
"We are getting a challenge of the current, SUV robot works on maximum current of 2 metres per second (2m/s) but the exiting current because of the tides is about 6m/s. The other challenge we have is visibility, it is very low," said one of the pilots on the KPA boat.
Other divers who have camped at the channel included the Kenya Navy, Kenya Ferry Services, Kenya Coast Guard and the Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, as well as private divers.
Kenya Ferry Services suspended its services on Wednesday at 9 am for more than two hours to facilitate the recovery operation. However, normal services have resumed.
The bodies of the mother and her daughter who were the occupants of the car are yet to be retrieved.