Angry Likoni residents had planned a mother of all demonstrations following the delayed retrieval of Mariam Kighenda and Amanda Mutheu's bodies, details have emerged.
After falling out with South Africa divers on Wednesday, the KDF Navy team blocked all private divers as they tried to recover the ill-fated vehicle from the Indian Ocean.
But with no signs of retrieval on Thursday, residents planned a major demonstration on Friday morning but the strategic KDF team got wind and acted on time.
"Unaware of Governor Joho's intervention, Navy team positioned itself in all strategic positions with tankers. This made residents fear taking part in the protest," said a source privy to the intrigues.
The bodies of the two were retrieved later on Friday afternoon, with Governor Joho playing an integral role in reconciling South Africa divers and Navy after fallout.
On Wednesday, the four Subseas divers had walked out of the exercise when the Navy team forcefully took credit after the divers reportedly sighted the vehicle.
"We have been having a government multi-agency which involves Kenya Navy, Kenya Ferry Services among others. The entire team is led by Kenya Navy under Col Lawrence Gituma.
"Those who were leading and had divers were Kenya Navy. Some helped us with cameras but it's Kenya Navy that spotted the vehicle. We are not saying that others didn't contribute but without divers, we wouldn't have made the progress," he said.
But fearing the outcome, Joho intervened by asking the KDF team to drop the approach. After retrieval, the entire recovery team took credit, with Joho taking charge.
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