Divers were called Wednesday to retrieve the body of a man who drowned in River Nzoia two weeks ago after he allegedly spoke to his mother in a dream.
Benard Oduor and four of his friends drowned when a speed boat they had taken from Port Victoria capsized on May 16. Four passengers survived.
Oduor’s mother Maria Masawa said his dead son sent her a dream on Tuesday night that his body was under the engine’s boat at the exact point where it capsized.
Local divers went to the scene to retrieve the body as per the dream but the river’s waters were flowing so fast and hampered their efforts.
They told the family that they needed a heavy object to keep them grounded at the point where the five drowned to search longer for Odour’s body. It is the only body that was yet to be found.
The family has kept vigil at the bank of River Nzoia for two weeks as they await the body's retrieval to fulfil Luo customs.
Among the Luo, families of drowning victims are required to keep vigil at the point where the tragedy occurred until the bodies are retrieved.
Masawa said it hurt so much to have lost the only surviving son and then fail to retrieve the body after an intensive search for two weeks.
She said she will be grateful to get the body to bury, even if it means getting parts of it.
The family condemned local leaders for abandoning them at the time of need.
Spokesperson John Olumu said they were angered by recent remarks by Siaya county commissioner Michael Tialal that the government had retrieved all the bodies.
“Why should we be suffering at the banks of River Nzoia for two weeks in the cold when our son’s body had already been retrieved?” Olumu asked.
Olumu challenged the county commissioner and the chief to present the burial permit for Odour if indeed his body was retrieved and buried.
He said the last of the five bodies was retrieved on Wednesday last week by divers brought in from Bomet county by the Siaya administration.
Olumu said the divers wanted more money to continue with the search as they had only been paid by the county government for one week.
They have been left on their own to look for the body, he said.
(edited by o. owino)
