The government has ruled out the creation of a divers team by Kenya Ferry Services (KFS) despite the unpreparedness witnessed following the Likoni Ferry tragedy.
Addressing the media on Saturday, Government Spokesman Col Cyrus Oguna said that such accidents are a rare occurance and it will not be economical to increase manpower at the channel.
“KFS does not have divers unit. It does not need to because it is not economical given that accidents are rare. The last one occurred 25 years ago,” Oguna said as quoted by Standard.
The accident happened when a Toyota Isis plunged into the Indian Ocean and sunk at the Likoni channel killing Mariam Kighenda and her daughter Amanda Mutheu who were aboard.
This forced a section of Kenyans on social media to call for establishment of a rescue team.
There were suggestions that Kenya was not well prepared to handle such an emergency forcing the nation to seek assistance from South African divers.
However, the government claimed that the assistance was limited to equipment but the discovery was done by Kenyan entities involved in the recovery mission.
"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," Oguna said after locating the sunken car.