Deep-sea divers from South Africa are expected at the Likoni ferry channel to offer their expertise in retrieving bodies of a mother and her daughter after their car plunged into the Indian Ocean on Sunday.
Mombasa governor Ali Hassan Joho on Wednesday gave the victims' family Sh2 million to hire high skilled divers from South Africa to aid in the ongoing salvage operation.
“I have sent for experts from South Africa to join efforts with multi-agency teams that are working round the clock to retrieve the bodies,” stated Joho as quoted by the Standard
Divers from different agencies including the Kenya Navy, Kenya Ferry Services, Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Coast Guard and the Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, and even private ones within the country have been camping at the channel since Sunday, but none of their efforts has resulted to success.
On Wednesday, the Kenya Ports Authority came in with underwater SUV robot but still could not manage to locate the car wreckage due to what they said was limited visibility because of dirty water and higher speed currents.
The Mombasa county boss had also through a tweet, requested for patience from the family after he paid them a visit.
"It has been a painful wait for the family & relatives of Mariam Kighenda and her daughter as rescue operations intensify at the Likoni channel. We understand the complexity of the search operations being the reason for the delay, and therefore we are asking for patience,” he noted in the tweet.