Pupils of Okwach Primary School in Muhoroni constituency, Kisumu County, are forced to perform a delicate dance with death during the daily commute to school.
Their journey involves combating the fast-flowing Makindu river, which has taken several lives over the years.
Reports by The Standard disclosed the severity of the hazard, with the school children forced to disrobe and place their uniforms and books in bags which are then held overhead as they wade through the turbulent water.
During their visit to the hazard spot, The Standard journalist witnessed a child being swept away by the heavy currents only to pulled to safety at the very last minute, by an adult who was on site.
Such close encounters are a daily occurrence in the area, with the proposed Ksh8 million bridge that was promised having stalled back in 2015.
Parents have thus been forced to improvise, with the relatively rich ones affording to have their kids ferried across the river by a local resident, George Ouma, who charges Ksh 50 per crossing.
"It is a sad state of affairs because whenever I have an emergency, my children cannot go to school because I am scared for their safety," one of the parents, Mary Akinyi, lamented.
The situation worsens each time it rains upstream, with Akinyi claiming the river had claimed a woman's life recently, with her corpse re-surfacing several kilometres downstream.
Residents also pointed out that they had written countless letters to their local leaders but none had come to their aid.
Okwach Primary school teachers thus took it upon themselves to escort the children across the river as well as wait for them at the banks of the river each morning.
The locals castigated their elected leaders, citing their fear that the ongoing rains could spell doom for them as they would be forced to bar their children from attending school.
Area Member of Parliament, Jame K'oyoo, claimed to have approached the Kenya Rural Roads Authority in a bid to address the hazardous problem.
