Two children die as boats collide in Lake Victoria

She looked helpless and lost in deep thought.

Tears rolled down her cheeks as Kenya Red Cross and other humanitarian workers, whom she had met probably for the first time Wednesday, offered her a shoulder to lean on.

Even though Mrs Lilian Awuor, 26, survived when two boats collided near Kiwa Island on Lake Victoria, her two daughters, Fatou Bensouda, aged two, and four-year-old Eda Anyango were not lucky.

They were the only casualties of the unfortunate occurrence.

The girls and their mother were on their way to Ahero in Kano, Kisumu County, for a visit.

With 23 other passengers, they boarded a 60-foot boat that was heading to Sori in Migori County from Ringiti Island.

 “They slipped out of my hand after our boat overturned … I remained clinging onto the boat but my girls went down before their bodies resurfaced later,” she told journalists amid sobs.

She was on her way from Remba Island, where she lives with her husband, a fisherman.

“I have now remained with only two girls, since I had four. I wonder why my two children had to die in this tragedy,” she said.

The passenger boat, called “Phoebe NyarCharly” (Phoebe the daughter of Charly), rammed a stationary fishing boat nicknamed Owe Chandi (Luo for “it should not bother you”) that was carrying three fishermen.

The front lower part of the passenger boat was ripped off on impact, which caused the vessel to start taking water, while the fishing boat’s right side was destroyed. None of the three fishermen in it was injured.

“The boat overturned after hitting the smaller boat but only the two children died.

"The 21 commuters including the coxswain were rescued after raising distress calls during the 12.30am incident,” said Mr John Omusanga, the Homa Bay county police commander.

The coxswain, Mr John Odero Ajamba, 50, said they stayed afloat hanging onto the ill-fated boat before they were rescued and taken to the nearby Kiwa Island.

The island is approximately 20 minutes via speed boats from the Nyandiwa trading centre in Gwassi Sub-County, Homa Bay County.

“I did not see this smaller boat. All I heard was a big bang. I tried to reverse but this proved impossible,” said Mr Ajamba, who had been a coxswain for more than 40 years.

“It had no light and, therefore, remained invisible. My engine later collapsed and stopped running.”

The survivors clutched on anything they could find. Some had life jackets and, perhaps, this is what saved their lives.

“Some of us used plastic buckets to remain afloat because the jackets were insufficient,” said Ms Eunice Adhiambo, another survivor.

 According to Mr Johannes Onyango, another survivor, some of them stayed in the water for more than an hour as they waited to be rescued.

“Some of my colleagues, whose phones had not been immersed, called some of our friends on dry land informing them of the tragedy.

“It is they who came to rescue us. We will be forever grateful to them since were it not for their heroics, we would have been long dead.”

When the Nation team reached Kiwa Island shortly after midday, officers from the Kenya Red Cross were administering first aid and counselling the survivors.

Operations on the island came to a standstill for several hours as its residents, who are predominantly fishermen, abandoned their activities to condole with Mrs Awuor and comfort the other survivors.

According to Mr Omusanga, the passenger boat, too, did not have any light during the mishap.

“I am therefore warning passenger boat owners in Lake Victoria that they should not operate at night but if they must, visible lights should be placed on the vessels to enable other coxswains to pick them out,” said the police boss.

The bodies were taken to the Homa Bay County Referral Hospital mortuary.