Five Kenyan Sailors stranded in Indonesia for two years finally jet back home

Captain Athman Hamisi (centre) with his crew when they arrived at Mombasa’s Moi International Airport on Thursday. [Maarufu Mohamed, Standard]

Five Kenyan seamen returned from Indonesia where they had been stranded for two years after their ship broke down in the high seas. But even though the crew of Mv Queen Bihanga, a cargo boat, were overjoyed when they arrived at the Moi International Airport in Mombasa on Thursday, they remembered their desperate stay in Jakarta where they were held because their travel papers were not in order.

The crew were torn between blaming the vessel owner, Mr Rafiki Abraham Diego, for their plight and remonstrating that their situation could have been avoided.