How boy, 4 , lost in Tsavo was rescued after missing for six days

A four-year-old boy from Asa who went missing in the surrounding wilderness in the Tsavo East area was on Monday found alive.

According to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, a report was made prompting a search team to be deployed.

The missing person report was made on November 29 by the Asa chief.

He reported that a four-year-old boy had gone missing during a storm the day prior, while out herding livestock with his brothers.

A pilot Roan Carr-Hartley who was on the search party said since it was too late, they could not initiate the search that night.

"But the following morning, I left Kaluku HQ at around 6:15 am and flew 70 minutes to reach the boy’s village. By the time I was overhead, a search party of 70 men were fanning through the wild scrubland in search of the little boy," the pilot said.

"I had a rough direction of the search party’s location given to me by the chief. The party had tracked the boy to an area 7 kilometres from his village, but then the tracks started to become unreadable."

Hartley said the ground teams tried to track his tiny footprints as the fixed-wing pilot supported the search from the air.

"One lost night stretched into several, and it seemed increasingly impossible that the child would be found alive in such a vast, unforgiving landscape," he said.

With no way of communicating with them while he was in the air, Hartley organised for the search party to walk with a white cloth tied to a long stick.

This would make it easier to find them in the dense bush.

"Four hours of scanning the sea of vegetation revealed nothing but an empty fuel tank and various animals, including hyenas and jackals. It was an unforgiving environment for any person to be alone, let alone a child so young," he said.

However, because of heavy rains, there was no shortage of surface water which sustained the boy.

On the evening of December 3,  the pilot got another call from the chief about the missing boy.

"He told me that the ground team had re-discovered the boy's tracks, a staggering 15 kilometres from his village," he said.

"However, hope had been reignited, and I was incredibly eager to keep searching. I kept thinking of the poor little guy alone out there and wanted to do everything possible to find him — even if it seemed like an impossible mission."

 Hartley left early in the morning for the search. 

"Off my left wing, I saw a tiny figure below me, surrounded by a mass of shrubs and trees. I could not believe my eyes, but there he was: a tiny boy surrounded by endless wilderness," he said.

"I was in shock that he was still alive and walking. I had not even begun to look for the boy; at that point, I was still searching for the group, which made it 10 times harder to believe what had just happened."

The boy was found on the sixth day.

The boy was rehydrated and put on a slow drip. He was covered in mosquito bites and scratches from the bristling thorn bushes.

Hartley reported that his feet were blistered and riddled with thorns and cuts, which is little surprise given the huge distances he walked. 

Two roaming doctors arrived to tend to the boy and ensure that he was okay.