Close kin of the two persons who died on Sunday, December 25, after a boat they were sailing in capsized at Jomo Kenyatta Public Beach, also known as Pirates Beach, Mombasa revealed that the vessel was overloaded during the fateful ride.
The bereaved members, while speaking to the press, further revealed that they did not have their life jackets on, as required, arguing that the operator of the boat insisted that there were no Coast guards at the moment.
They, however, maintained that they had insisted on putting the jackets on albeit on the deaf ears of the operator.
According to one of the survivors, the boat had a total of nine people on board which they asserted was above its capacity.
One of their compatriots had cast doubts on the ability of the boat to handle the weight of the entire family and opted out of the ride together with two children.
"We jumped out of the boat, me my grand-child and one of my son-in-law, we said maybe it is overloaded but the guys insisted that it was in a good condition," a survivor recounted.
The survivors further added that they were on their routine tour of the Kenyan coast, and had planned to tour other beach towns along Kenya’s Coastline.
However, this year’s ride at the Pirates Beach was a different one as they had had to come to terms with the demise of their kin and leave with scary memory of a near-death experience.
They added that they fought for their lives for over 25 minutes, as their calls for rescue protocol went unanswered.
They at last secured a rescue boat from a well-wisher- albeit not swift enough to salvage the lives of their loved ones.
The family blamed the ordeal on the negligence of sailing regulations and subsequently called upon the government to seal the loopholes in Kenya’s regulations.
In response to the tragedy, Maritime Affairs Cabinet Secretary Salim Mvurya announced a ban on all recreational activities on Kenyan beaches beyond 5:30 pm.
