The Kenya Rescue Divers who had been hired by the family of a woman and daughter plunged into the Indian Ocean have withdrawn from the search mission.
The divers cited harassment by the security officers as one of the reasons why they could no longer be part of the search team.
The leader of the 15-man team Musa Owaga accused Colonel Lawrence Gituma of kicking him out of the operation.
Col Gituma of the Kenya Navy who is leading the operation to recover the bodies of Mariam Kighenda and her daughter Amanda Mutheu, on the other hand, stated that Owaga and his team had failed to follow the security regulations.
“We need everyone to follow the rules we issued strictly. Musa defied orders to adhere to the rules,” Col Gituma stated.
According to Gituma, the search and recovery operation should be carried out in a way that does not endanger life.
He further pointed out that all the 13 different teams involved in the search were under one command.
Owaga claimed he withdrew from the operation together with his team on Thursday after he was temporarily kicked out of the search mission on Wednesday.
“We are not pleased with the harassment by the security team. We have taken a break and we don’t know when we are we going to resume,’’ he stated.
The family of the victims had employed the services of the divers at a cost of Sh250,000.