Machakos Governor, Alfred Mutua is on the spot over comments he made about swimming during the launch of his manifesto on Sunday, December 5.
In his manifesto, Mutua revealed plans to grow swimming as a sport in the country, terming it as an essential skill. He fronted that each county should have a public swimming pool.
The Maendeleo Chapchap leader noted that swimming was not only essential skill for both adults and children but also a life-saving one.
"Many of our children have lost their lives through drowning. Even this man looking at me does not know how to swim, when he sees water, he just dies, you don't know how to swim," he stated.
Governor Mutua emphasized that the skill would come in handy should anything happen when the children are crossing rivers.
"We need to have swimming pools so that when our children are crossing rivers and something goes wrong or there is a dam they are playing around, they do not die," he reiterated.
His comments elicited reactions from the public who termed them as insensitive, even as the wounds of the Mwingi Bus tragedy that led to the loss of lives of 33 Kenyans still remain fresh.
"This is a very insensitive and incoherent gibberish I have ever heard from you! How can one swim while trapped in a drowned bus?" Lawrence Muyah posed.
Other Kenyans came out to question the practicality of Mutua's ideas, adding that they would not provide a long-lasting solution to the problem, given that several lives had been lost along River Enziu whenever it flooded.
"Are u kidding to me? I'm sure even the best swimmers will have difficulties surviving if trapped in a bus under water with so many people struggling to exist. Add that with conditions of dirty, muddy water that makes impossible to see anything," another Kenyan noted.
However, other Kenyans lauded the governor, stating that the idea was well thought and would benefit Kenyans.
