Man drowns with friend in Nakuru while celebrating graduation

Celebrations by a Nakuru family whose son graduated from college last weekend were cut short when he and a friend drowned at a hotel.

Relatives said Mr Simon Mbugua, 27, had gone to celebrate with seven of his friends at the nearby Pilgrims Getawa Hotel, Ngata, on Wednesday when he and Mr Moses Wangai drowned in the swimming pool.

Mr Mbugua had graduated with a diploma from the Rift Valley Institute of Business Studies, located in Nakuru Town, on Saturday.

“We were eight inside the pool and we were swimming while taking selfies,” said Josiah Muriuki.

“Three of us, among them the deceased, moved to the deep end and left the rest of us at the shallow end.

“Then we heard screams from two of the three and rushed there. We saved one and two drowned.”

NO LIFEGUARDS

Mr Muriuki said the pool neither had lifeguards nor rescue equipment and they retrieved the bodies using brooms after several attempts.

“I do casual jobs for a living,” said Mr Mbugua’s father James Mbugua Kanyutu, a watchman at a school in Nyahururu town.

“I have struggled a lot to see him graduate and now, even before the family can enjoy the fruits, he has gone.”

Mr Charles Warue, Mr Mbugua’s uncle, said: “We demand justice for our sons. How can such a big hotel lack lifeguards?”

The hotel's owner, Rev Lawrence Bomett, said his lawyer would call back and explain about the incident but he did not.

Subsequent calls to the former National Commission and Integration Commission (NCIC) commissioner went unanswered.