Survivors recall last moments before all hell broke loose

Rescuers search for trapped remains of one of the seven people who were swept away by flash floods in a gorge at Hell’s Gate National park in Naivasha on April 23, 2012. Photo/SULEIMAN MBATIA

Survivors of Sunday’s tragedy at Hells Gate National Park on Monday described the scenes from hell they encountered as seven of their colleagues were killed by floods. Read (Ten killed in floods mayhem)

They told of deafening noise as the raging water approached the group of 51, darkness and then the race to save their lives after what had started off as an adventure turned tragic.

But they also recounted tales of their lucky escape and return to Nairobi from Naivasha.

For seven families, the trip was a painful one as they identified bodies of their loved ones which had been airlifted to Naivasha District Hospital mortuary.

The meteorological department, meanwhile warned of more flooding as the long rains continue to pound many parts of the country.

The journey which had been expected to be a happy one for the party of teenagers and young adults started at Mukarara PCEA Church in Nairobi’s Dagoretti area.

Timothy Waiganjo, one of the survivors, said he thought a helicopter was landing, as the flood waters roared through the gulley at about 3.30pm.

The noise was deafening and most of his church colleagues became confused, he said.

Their guides shouted at them to look for higher ground and in a split second, a river appeared from nowhere carrying soil, tree branches and stones travelling at a ferocious speed towards them.

Waiganjo, 19, says without thinking much, he held onto a rock as the water hit him.

As he clung on the rock, he saw four of his colleagues who were ahead of him being swept away.

“I could have helped them but that means that I could have been swept along with them. The wave was too strong,” Waiganjo, a youth member of Presbyterian Church of East Africa in Dagoretti, Nairobi, said.

He said he only let off the rock after about two hours.

At least 50 youths aged between 15 and 26 years from the Nairobi church were visiting the park as part of a bonding mission.

Rough water

Naivasha, where the park is located, is a colonial corruption of the Maasai name Nai’posha, meaning “rough water” caused by afternoon storms.

Before the tragedy, it is reported that it had rained for more than three hours up the cliff where the park is located.

The trip had been arranged by the church under the chairmanship of James Kinyanjui of the youth group.

Kinyanjui was rescued from the flood waters by tour guides.

“They know how to go about the rocky area and that is how we survived,” Kinyanjui said.

When the Nation visited him at their home in Waithaka he could hardly speak, saying he was forced to swallow soil during the incident.

He also sustained injuries from being tossed on rocks by the force of the water.

Fourteen of them were swept downwards, but seven were rescued.

“It had drizzled and we did not see any danger lurking ahead of us,” Joseph Mushugia, 24, who was among the survivors, said after emerging from the gulley, also known as “Devils bedroom”.

Karen Wahome, 15, who also clung onto a rock said she had started saying her last prayers when the floods stopped suddenly.

She said the trips had been banned two years ago after some youths misbehaved, but was revived this year after stringent conditions were put in place by the church.

Dagoreti DC Cornelius Wamalwa said they were forced to use a helicopter in the rescue mission to retrieve the bodies.

He said parents of the deceased had travelled to Naivasha. Counsellors had also been sent to the church to counsel survivors and relatives of the victims.