The bodies of two men retrieved on Tuesday from Lake Naivasha have been identified.
They could have drowned while fleeing from attackers.
The two "illegal fishermen" were allegedly kicked out of a boat they were using to steal fish from nets laid by licensed fishermen and in the process they drowned.
One man, however, managed to swim to safety during the night incident near Kamere landing beach – 30kms from Naivasha town.
On Tuesday morning, police recovered the bodies from the lake, with questions being raised over their identity and killers.
Naivasha police boss Samuel Waweru said the bodies had been identified.
“The two men are known and it’s only a postmortem which will determine the cause of death and our officers have opened an inquest file,” he said.
A fisherman, who declined to be named, said there have been increased cases of fish theft in the lake.
“Some men have been using the cover of darkness to steal fish only for the legal fishermen to find their nets empty in the morning,” he said.
He said that in the latest incident, a trap was laid to catch the thieves.
“They were caught red-handed, and they jumped out of the boat to avoid more beatings. They drowned but one managed to swim to safety,” the fisherman said.
Naivasha Boat Owners Association chairman David Kilo said a majority of the illegal fishermen were former flower farm workers.
He said their continued fishing on the shorelines using undersized nets has hurt fish production.
“Currently, the number of illegal fishermen in the lake outnumbers that of the licensed ones,” he said.
