Garsen MP Ali Wario, his Galole counterpart Hiribae Buya rescued from River Tana
Garsen Member of Parliament Ali Wario (in pink T-shirt) and his counterparts during a rescue mission in the River Tana on December 2, 2023.
Garsen Member of Parliament Ali Wario and his Galole counterpart Said Buya Hiribae have been found alive and rescued.
The two were among 16 others who went missing during a rescue mission in the Tana River on Saturday.
According to Tana River County Commissioner Mohammed Noor, the team was tracked down in the middle of Tana delta by skilled men.
"They were somewhere in Mlima Abo, the GPRS showed they were 22km from Garsen, but when we tracked them along the river, we could not see them," he said.
He said two boats had been sent earlier to search for the team, but without success. However, a third team managed to locate them manually. Mr Noor told Nation.Africa that all 18 people on the boat are safe.
"By the time we found them, it was 4am and they had left the main channel of the river for another route where they docked," he said.
"We didn't know where we were, the river has burst its banks and all the villages are flooded, so any route looks like a shortcut and that's where we went wrong," Galole MP said.
The lawmaker said that they could not risk returning to the main route because they were running out of fuel and it would have been risky.
However, he thanked the combined efforts of the Ministry of Defence, the Navy and the Kenya Red Cross for ensuring they returned safely to the base.
"It is not easy to survive the Tana River at this time but I am confident that our government is prepared for such incidents based on the efforts we have witnessed," he said.
