A somber mood engulfed Ahero village of Bahati ward, Nakuru on Wednesday, after a eight-year-old boy drowned in a dam dug at a farm owned by former president Mwai Kibaki on Tuesday afternoon.
The boy, Richard Gakuru, was in company of four others searching indigenous vegetables inside the farm, when he decided to swim in the dam.
“We realized that he had not been seen after they left home in search of managu. When we asked the other children, they said he had fallen in the dam,” his mother Loise Wanjiru said.
Bahati MCA Peter Nderitu, braved the morning cold on Wednesday to dive in the dam in search of the boy’s body. He formerly worked with the Kenya Navy for 20 years before resigning and joining politics in 2013.
The Nakuru county MCA made several attempts to retrieve the body, but the efforts bore no fruits by 5pm.
Area residents held demonstrations demanding Nakuru county boss Kinuthia Mbugua to take action, after the fire department failed to offer water pumping machines that would remove the muddy water.
They blocked the Nakuru-Subukia highway and lit fire.
“We have tried to call the fire department and the police but they are telling us to wait for three days for the body to float” MCA Peter said.
The body is yet to be retrieved.