Family seeks government's help to retrieve bodies of kin from Nyamindi River

A family in Meru whose relatives died after the vehicle they were travelling in plunged into the Nyamindi River is appealing for help to retrieve their bodies.

A sombre mood persists in Akaiga Village in Meru County as the family hopes the bodies will be found soon.

The five, who were among six passengers, were travelling from the village after attending the funeral of a family member when the tragedy struck.

The family of Martha Nkiringi, who lost two sons in the accident, is distraught and is appealing to the government to help retrieve the bodies, four days after the accident happened.

Mrs Nkiringi’s son Fredrick Gitonga, his wife, Susan Kawira, and their five-year-old son Pascal Kimathi died in the accident.

Only Ms Kawira's body has so far been retrieved from the fast-flowing river.

Gitonga’s brother Robert Maingi and an 11-year-old nephew, Denis Mwiti, whose mother, Justa Karimi, survived, also perished in the accident.

LUCKY TO BE ALIVE

Karimi says she is lucky to be alive. She was thrown out of the car on impact.

Ms Karimi told the Nation that she could not tell how she survived the Saturday night accident.

According to her, they left Meru for Nairobi on Saturday at around 6pm.

“I found myself on top of a tree, fell down and saw the vehicle rolling down into the river with its headlights still on.

“I was not in a position to help them. I shouted for help but when the villagers came, the car had already been swept away,” she told the Nation.

Mrs Nkiringi said she bid them farewell before they left for Nairobi.

She described the death of her relatives as a huge loss to the family. Her two sons, she said, were the family’s breadwinners.

“My husband disowned me a long time ago. It is my sons who bought for me this piece of land and built a house.

“I don’t know where my fate lies after losing them all at once,” she said as tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Now that they are all gone, I don’t know where to head to.”

Although Kawira’s body has been recovered, Mrs Nkiringi's hope is that those of the rest of their loved ones will be retrieved from the river.

“It is difficult to accept the fact that they are gone, my appeal to the government is to help find the four remaining bodies so that I can bury them, just like my other son-in-law, whom we laid to rest on the fateful day,” she said.