Recovery Operation in Likoni Suspended

The recovery operation by a multiagency team to retrieve the bodies of Mariam Kighenda, her 4-year-old daughter who drowned 12 days ago in the ocean at Likoni Channel will resume on Friday.

The operation will resume on Friday morning at 9 am.

The car-removal exercise which began at 9 am Thursday ended at around 6:15 pm.

On Wednesday, Government Spokesperson Cyrus Oguna assured Kenyans that the bodies will be retrieved today by 3 pm after the rescue team successfully spotted the sunken vehicle 57 meters deep in the Indian Ocean.

Government Spokesperson Cyrus Oguna giving the media updates of the recovery operation on Wednesday [Photo, Courtesy]
However, by 3 pm, the Kenya Navy had not retrieved the bodies trapped inside the Toyota Isis.

Yesterday, Oguna clarified they are not sure if they belonged to Mariam and her daughter.

“At 3 pm today, we announced that we had sighted an object in the sea that resembles a car. We have screened the exact spot where the object is, and I can authoritatively say that it is Mariam Kighenda’s vehicle. We have managed to read the registration plate number; it is KCB 289C”.

He added: “As of now, we cannot say with authority that Mariam’s body and that of her daughter are in the vehicle. Tomorrow when we will retrieve the vehicle from the sea, we would establish whether the bodies are in it, or not”

The rescue efforts have been replicated with many challenges among them the depth of the ocean and dangerous animals.

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