President Uhuru Kenyatta has revoked the appointment of all Kenya Ferry Services board members, days after Likoni ferry tragedy.
Mariam Kighenda and her daughter Amanda Mutheu drowned into the Indian Ocean on September 29th, with the government struggling to retrieve their bodies for burial.
After 13 days, a multi-agency team led by Kenya Navy was able to retrieve the bodies. Autopsy showed that the two died following suffocation at seabed.
In a special Gazette notice dated October 16, Uhuru fired Dan Mwazo, Daula Omar, Naima Amir, Philip Ndolo and Rosina Mruttu.
The Kenya Ferry Services board faced criticism throughout recovery process, with Kenyans calling for their dismissal. Mwazo avoided media interviews throughout that people. He was very brief when the bodies were retrieved.
Kighenda's husband John Wambua recently received ShSh200,000 from KFS for the burial of the two. He insisted that his wife had not committed any negligence.
DCI team has since taken over the matter. South Africa divers are said to have played a major role in the retrieval of the bodies.
Despite criticism targeting Kenya Defense Forces, Navy department, Major General Levy Mghalu defended his divers, insisting that they did a nice job.
However, the Navy boss had also hit at Kenya Ferry Services and Kenya Ports Authority over disaster preparedness, arguing that the teams should be prepared all the time.
Further, the Navy boss asked transport agencies to always do inspection on the machines used for transportation, adding that it's their duty to ensure safety for commuters.
“The operation today has come to an end but we have also learnt a lesson,’’ he said and called on the ferry management and other institutions to invest in divers, vessels and equipment for emergencies like this one.
He also called on government regulatory bodies to inspect their vessels to establish whether they are seaworthy or meet safety standards.
Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho described the September 29 events as tragic and hailed yesterday’s recovery as historic because most people that plunged into the channel since the 1960s were never recovered.
“Let this be a lesson to avert more tragedies in future. Many thought this was an easy task but it wasn’t,” Joho said and accused some unnamed people of fanning hostile propaganda against state agencies during the ordeal.
Despite his swipe at KFS, Mghalu's Navy team was accused of frustrating private divers, with some sources saying that they were not ready to recover the bodies.
Multiple sources revealed that at first no planning meetings were held as politics eclipsed the exercise.
“What we were going for was just like a breakfast meeting where we shared information on locations that we had found using our machines,” said one of source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
At no time did divers from the Kenya Navy, Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute and the county government plan the exercise together.
“The Kenya Navy was commanding everything, leaving out the others, and that’s why Musa (a local diver) pulled out because he was frustrated,” said our source.
Though the Kenya Navy lacked the appropriate equipment, “they wanted to be seen as the ones doing everything and did not want to recognise efforts by the other agencies, thus frustrating them,” the source said.