Two Missing Tana River MPs Found and rescued
Two Members of Parliament and two ward representatives who were reported missing in Tana River on Saturday evening have been found and successfully rescued.
The four lawmakers, along with seven others, were reportedly engaged in a food distribution mission in the county when their boat went missing.
Garsen MP Ali Wario and Galole counterpart Said Hiribae were discovered early Sunday morning with the assistance of a team from the Kenya Red Cross Society, which conducted search operations.
The Area County Commissioner, in his update, specified that the legislators were located in an area known as Feji before being safely evacuated.
The recent days have seen Tana River experiencing flooding due to intense rainfall affecting various regions across the country.
The Kenya Red Cross is currently engaged in ongoing efforts to evacuate individuals who find themselves stranded after their villages were engulfed by floods.
The Members of Parliament and their aides had departed from a food distribution initiative aimed at assisting flood victims when they became disoriented in the river while attempting to navigate their way to Garsen.
Video footage shared by journalist Lizah Mutuku on her X platform depicted the MPs making an urgent appeal for emergency assistance around 10:30 pm.
“We are lost we are in the middle of nowhere. Today we were on a rescue mission in Mnazini area and as we were going back we got lost in the river. So we are in the middle of the waters, we don’t know the directions. We do not know where we are now,” said Wario.
Interior CS Kithure Kindiki, in response to the incident, stated that a multi-agency team had been deployed to aid in the search and tracing efforts.
“Security agencies have established contact with a passenger in the boat that went missing earlier this evening in the waters of Tana River,” Kindiki said,
“All the eighteen passengers and crew are so far safe but are stranded at a yet-to-be-established location. A multi-agency search and rescue mission spearheaded by the Kenya Coast Guard is underway overnight.”
