Car retrieved
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) has confirmed it successfully secured court summons against senior Kenya Ferry Services (KFS) officials and a police officer over CCTV footage linked to the 2019 Likoni ferry tragedy that claimed the lives of Mariam Kighenda and her four-year-old daughter, Amanda Mutheu.
The Likoni ferry incident occurred when Mariam Kighenda, then 35, and her daughter drowned after their car slid off the ferry ramp into the Indian Ocean at the busy Likoni Channel crossing in Mombasa.
According to the ODPP, the Mombasa Chief Magistrate’s Court issued the summons requiring KFS Managing Director Bakari Ngowa, Likoni Subcounty Divisional Criminal Investigations Officer (DCIO), and Corporal Moses Mahiuha to appear in court on July 24, 2025.
The summons followed an ODPP application seeking clarification on the handling of CCTV evidence said to have captured the incident where the victims’ vehicle plunged into the Indian Ocean on December 20, 2019.
“Principal Prosecution Counsel Alex Ndiema asked the court to direct the officials to explain the chain of custody of the CCTV footage, which was reportedly handed over by the original investigating officer to KFS management rather than being formally submitted as evidence,” the ODPP said in a statement.
The ODPP further stated that concerns about the availability and completeness of the footage have arisen during the inquest, with prosecutors seeking to establish whether standard procedures for managing such evidence were observed.
The footage, believed to show the victims’ vehicle slipping off the ferry ramp into the Likoni Channel, has drawn attention after only a partial clip was presented in court, according to the ODPP.
During a recent hearing, the current investigating officer reportedly produced a short video, but the ODPP noted it did not capture the entire sequence of events leading to the tragedy.
The accident prompted a nationwide outcry over safety at the channel. It took divers nearly two weeks to recover the vehicle and the bodies.
