Desperate Kenya seeks South Africa’s help to retrieve ferry victims

Transport CS James Macharia with Kenya Ferry Services chairman Dan Mwazo (right) and other leaders address the press at the Mbaraki wharf in Mombasa yesterday. [Maarufu Mohamed, Standard]

Kenya has now turned to South Africa for help to retrieve a car and its two occupants trapped on the bed of the Indian Ocean since September 29.

In a sign of growing government concern over the adverse publicity and public anger for its unexplained failure to recover the corpses and wreckage, the state yesterday deployed Transport CS James Macharia and AU Special Envoy for Infrastructure Raila Odinga to Mombasa to condole with John Wambua -- the grieving widower of Mariam Kighenda -- and support search and retrieval operations.