Bodies of four youths recovered from Lake Naivasha

Fishermen and Nakuru county officials during the search operation for two fishermen who drowned in Lake Naivasha. [File, Standard]

The bodies of four fishermen who drowned while illegally fishing in Lake Naivasha have been recovered following a two-day search around the scene of the incident.

Two of the bodies were recovered on Saturday evening, with the remaining two found on Sunday morning after a joint operation involving the Kenya Coast Guard Service and local fishermen.

Two of the victims were brothers from Kihoto Estate who had joined their colleagues for fishing near Karlo Farm when a group of hippos attacked. While fleeing, four of the 14 youths drowned, while the rest swam to safety, highlighting growing concern over rising drowning and hippo attack cases in the lake.

Naivasha DCIO Isaac Kiama confirmed all youths in the lake during the attack have now been accounted for. “All four missing bodies have now been recovered and taken to the Naivasha Sub-County Hospital mortuary, and inquest files have been opened,” he said.

Kiama expressed concern over the high number of deaths involving youths illegally fishing over the past two years. “As the number of illegal fishermen in the lake rises, so do cases of drowning, and many victims are very young men seeking food for their families,” he added.

Francis Muthui, chairman of Friends of Lake Naivasha, said the lake records at least four deaths related to drowning or hippo attacks every month. Foot-fishermen are the most affected, as the sector continues to attract hundreds of unemployed youths, mainly from nearby informal settlements. “We proposed culling the hippos, but KWS ruled this out. It is time a decision is made on whether some animals could be relocated to other water bodies,” Muthui said. He added that the closure of wildlife corridors and encroachment of riparian land has made the animals more aggressive than in previous years.

However, Grace Nyambura from the Lake Naivasha Network Group blamed the victims for encroaching on the animals’ territory. She said the foot-fishermen were illegally on the lake and noted that no licensed fisherman has been attacked or killed by a hippo there for years.