Three people including two pupils have lost their lives after drowning in a water pond in Chewoyet village, Kapenguria Township, West Pokot County.
According to an eyewitness, the two KCPE candidates drowned when they were fetching water from the forty feet pond.
A witness told K24 Digital that water jerrycan used by one of the boys fell into the pond prompting one of them to jump in to recover it.
“We have been using this pond since time immemorial to source for our day-to-day water and have never witnessed such a tragedy. The first boy took long to resurface forcing the other boy to also jump into the waterhole to try and rescue him. We were scared after both the two boys took so long to return to the surface and we called a local fundi to try and rescue them,” he said.
Unfortunately, the fundi jumped into the pond and after some time he began gasping for air. He was not able to rescue the two boys as he also drowned.
The County Government rescue team, Redcross personnel and other experts who arrived at the scene of tragedy shortly tried to retrieve the bodies unsuccessfully due to lack of proper tools.
It was the effort of one of the locals identified as Leonard Kamosin that salvaged the situation.
He jumped into the waters and retrieved the bodies of the three after several hours of trial.
Residents now want County Government to provide water pumps to avert such tragedies in future.
Parents and teachers have also been asked to avoid sending children to the pond given that it risks their lives.
