Three people died including a two-year old child when the boat they were traveling in capsized on Lake Victoria.
The three were traveling together with other passengers from Ringiti Island to Sindo on Sunday evening.
The deceased identified as Nancy Otieno Okinyi aged 25 and her child, Stanley Ochieng died on arrival at Ugina Health Centre. The body of the third victim, Walter Juma is yet to be recovered.
According to Nicholas Ochieng who is a boat operator in the area, accident happened about 5 kilometers off the Island. He said he was transporting other passengers to Sindo when he noticed hands waving for help.
As he approached the scene of the accident he noticed two men hanging on a boat. “I found two tired men on top of a sinking boat. Together with my passengers we decided to evacuate them to safety,” said Ochieng.
The rider said he was informed that three other passengers had drowned and a search for them was launched.
“I was told that it had not taken long after the boat had capsized so I decided to dive into the water to search for the three,” he said. He found two victims who were still alive but later died on arrival at a health fertility.
Homa Bay County Police Commander John Omusanga said search for the third victim who is said to be the boats coxswain is currently ongoing.
The police boss said preliminary investigations have indicated that the boat had capsized due to overloading. “The boat was loaded with timber which had greater weight than it could bear,” said Omusanga.
He asked residents around the lake to always use life jackets and avoid boarding overloaded boats as a way of preventing drowning in case of accident in the water. The bodies were taken to Sindo Mortuary for postmortem.
