Village in mourning after two young brothers drown
Francis Cheptoo (centre) and some of his family members show where they retrieved the bodies of his two grandsons,10 and 7 years of age who had visited him last Tuesday for Christmas festivities but a day later mysteriously drowned in Molo River which is about three kilometres away from his home in Lengenet, Nakuru County.
What you need to know:
- The two siblings identified as Elion Kipruto, 10 in grade four and Roy Kipruto, 7, in grade one, were pupils at Rafiki Primary School.
- The bodies of the two were retrieved yesterday, from River Molo after a four days’ search.
What was meant to be a festive afternoon, turned tragic for a family in Lengenet village in Rongai, Nakuru County, after two siblings drowned at River Molo on Thursday, sending their kin into distress.
The two siblings identified as Elion Kipruto, 10 in grade four and Roy Kipruto, 7, in grade one, were pupils at Rafiki Primary School.
The bodies of the two were retrieved yesterday, from River Molo after a four days’ search.
When the Nation visited the home, their grandfather Mr Francis Cheptoo’s was in disbelief as he tried to come to terms with what started as a sun-filled excursion and a trip to fetch water from the river.
According to their grandfather the two had just visited the home for the Christmas holidays, before tragedy struck.
He said that their uncle picked them from their Rafiki home on Wednesday evening, after the two insisted that they wanted to travel a day earlier than their mother, to spend the holidays with their grandparents.
He recalled that on Thursday morning, they woke up as usual, took breakfast and then went out to play with their friends in the neighbourhood as they waited for their mother’s arrival.
Grandparents Francis Cheptoo and his wife Jennifer Sorno view photos of her two grandsons,10 and 7. The boys drowned on Saturday, 16 December 2023.
Hours later, the two came back running, alerting their grandparents that their mother had arrived and even helped in carrying the luggage into the house.
They took lunch together as a family and the boys excused themselves again to play outside as their mother was busy catching up with the rest of the family.
“When the younger one came back forty minutes later, we assumed maybe he was feeling cold, we did not bother to ask his elder brother’s whereabouts since we knew that they were playing together. That was the last time we saw him,” he recalled.
According to Mr Cheptoo, the family got worried after the two failed to return in the evening, forcing them to search for the two in the neighborhood, but their efforts were futile.
He said that they even made a public announcement at a church crusade thinking that they had followed other children to the church service. However, the two were nowhere to be seen.
“I was worried since they do not go to other people’s homes. We looked for them till late night before calling off the search. We posted their images on the village WhatsApp group but there was no positive response,” he recalled.
On Friday morning, Mr Cheptoo was alerted that some clothes and slippers had been abandoned on the river bank, to his surprise upon arrival he established they were those of his grandchildren.
The family opted to search for the bodies as they believed that they had been trapped in the water.
With the help of divers from the department of disaster, the first body was found on Saturday afternoon. The other body was retrieved on Sunday evening.
“When the bodies were retrieved, we noted that their stomachs were flat. We do not know what happened. We will conduct a postmortem to know the cause of death. It is painful to lose two children at the same time,” he narrated.
Their mother Olivia Sorno was overwhelmed with emotions and could not speak with the media.
