Kenya Ferry Services (KFS) has been asked to employ qualified merchant mariners to man their vessels.
Seafarers Brotherhood has said that for KFS do deliver services to ferry users in a safe way, they should make sure those manning the vessels are qualified mariners who can rapidly respond to any accidents that frequently occur at the Likoni and Mtongwe Ferry channels.
Seafarers Brotherhood's convenor Andrew Mwangura, who got more than 30 years experience working as a seafarer, said through a statement to newsrooms, that unless KFS and Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA) welcome changes, Kenyans' lives are at risk
"The ferries must be manned by qualified merchant mariners. We are convinced beyond any doubt that unless KMA and KFS radically overhaul, our waterways would remain a peril like swords of Damocles upon the lives of Kenyans,” Mwangura said.
On September 29, a car slid from MV Harambee ferry and plunged into the Indian Ocean with its occupants, a mother, Mariam Kighenda and her four-year-old daughter, Amanda Mutheu.
It has taken divers from different government agencies and foreign ones led by the Kenya Navy, more than 11 days trying to salvage the bodies of the two from the ocean bed, but their efforts are yet to yield fruits.
Mwangura added that action should be taken in advance even as the government waits to construct a bridge at the channel.