All the four bodies belonging to form one students from Syokisinga secondary school in Yatta, Machakos County who drowned in River Athi have been retrieved.
One of the bodies was retrieved on Friday evening before the exercise was suspended to Saturday morning due to nightfall.
The three boys and one girl died in River Athi while swimming on Friday.
They had gone for a Geography class (field work) with their teacherMachakos county commissioner Abdullahi Galgalo termed the incident as bad lack stating that he believes there is no teacher who can have intentions of taking his students’ lives.
“The search for the bodies started yesterday evening after the children drowned in the river while on an educational tour,” said Galgalo.
He addressed the press at the scene in Katangi after the last body was retrieved by local divers with the assistance from Kenya Red Cross officers.
“All the four bodies have been retrieved and they are being taken to the mortuary. I believe there is no teacher who has an intention of killing his students, this is bad lack,” added Galgalo.
Galgalo said as security officers, they will conduct thorough investigations to get to the bottom of the matter.
He said a teacher who was with the children during the incident had been arrested and is helping the police in the investigations.
“There is a teacher whom we have arrested because he is the one who was with the children during the incident, but thorough investigations will be done,” said Galgalo.
The bodies were removed to Machakos Level 5 Hospital mortuary.
The county commissioner was accompanied by the director of education, Paul Kibet, among other senior government officials.
Kibet asked the concerned team of investigators to get to the bottom of really what transpired saying it was a tragic moment.“I have just arrived to witness the last body being retrieved from the river, pass my condolences on own behalf and that of the Ministry of Education to the parents, school, friends, and relatives of the bereaved families,” said Kibet.
“The event of the departed three boys and one girl is a tragic one because if you lose people in the prime of their lives, we lose so much as a nation,” added Kibet.
Galgalo asked teachers to be more careful and cautious whenever they accompany their students out on educational tours to avoid recurrence of such eventualities.
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