Country failed mother, daughter in ferry tragedy
SABINA AKOTH
Death brings pain and suffering. Oftentimes, those left behind wonder which event is less traumatic; deaths that catch you by surprise or the ones that occasion a long suffering of the flesh. It is, perhaps, these questions that the family of Mariam Kighenda and her four-year-old Amanda Mutheu are asking. The two tragically lost their lives after their car slipped and sunk into the Indian Ocean.
The painful scene beheld the mother and child frantically asking for help as the public helplessly watched on the sidelines. It also beheld the wrath of nature as it charily consumed the two innocent lives.
What is most evident, however, is that we failed Mariam and Amanda. We failed them by our inefficiency and we are still failing them with our complacency.
Many reasons have been put forth regarding the cause of their accident, the major one being the laxity in security onboard the ferry. In particular, Mariam and her daughter stayed in the car even after they were aboard the ferry. Ideally, and borrowing from best practice, they should have left their car behind and joined the crowd at a safer distance.
More alarming is the fact that there were even fewer security measures for the car itself. Many affirm that accident could have been avoided had there been a stronger and bigger ramp.
The absence of lifesavers aboard is another challenge. Often times, those who patronise the ferry are herded and hurdled together in the small space. Lifesaver jackets are hard to come by and there are no criteria for the distribution of the few available. Perhaps there should be investment in more divers and/or lifeguards. With that big number of patrons it is only logical and fair that an adequate amount of life guards are made available on board.
This lapses were even more evident during the rescue mission. It was appalling that it was almost impossible to find local qualified divers days after the accident. The family and the country at large had to wait for days to get the right equipment and the right personnel to identify the vehicle. It cost the family thousands of shillings to hire a personal diver to address a public tragedy. This was against the background of preparations by the Kenya Navy for the forthcoming Mashujaa Day.
All these have been a bone of contention for the citizenry even as the bodies of the two Kenyans were finally recovered from the waters. It is partly a relief and party a scorn on the weight we place on the lives of our fellow men. The relief comes from the fact that the family can now have closure.
Last week, there were suggestions that the family should start working on accepting the situation and the possibility that they could never see their bodies of their loved.
Mainstream and social media pundits had wrongly predicted that the two would never be found and that the family should have a memorial service by the ocean to mark their loss.
The pundits cannot bee blamed, however, because this is not the first time that lives and property have not been retrieved from these deep waters. There are families still in loss as their people will never be found under sea. It is because of this that the scorn of the event is heavy on the minds of all involved.
Indeed, it is even more upsetting that the government wants to establish a task force to investigate an issue whose causes and solutions are obvious to naked eye. This escapist and diversionary tactic that is characteristic to our disaster management systems wastes time, risks more lives and squanders our resources.
As citizens, we are even more complacent as we continue to use the same ferry in the same unsafe condition. It is as though we are conditioned for silence and routine, because in other sober environments one would demand for better and sustainable changes given how precarious life can be.
In honour of the memories of Mariam and her daughter Amanda, it is only appropriate that we put an end to all these inefficiencies so that no other family can go through what they did.
—The writer comments on socioeconomic issues
