A family in Migori County is mourning the loss of their son, who drowned in the Migori River.
Maccain Okinyi, a Grade Five student at St Gabriel's Primary School in Nyatike, perished while attempting to swim across the river with a classmate. When schools reopened in January 2024, the boy was supposed to start in Grade Six.
According to the villagers, the deceased had gone into a neighboring Nyatike forest with two other boys, one of whom was his younger brother, when the incident occurred.
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The deceased's family slept on the riverbanks for three days, waiting for the body to resurface.
Teachers from St Gabriel's Primary School were among those who came to see the family on the riverbanks while they waited for the body to resurface.
Divers spend hours, if not days, searching the river's depths for the body.
Residents have requested that the police examine the incident, with some stating that the boys were chased out of the woodland, leading one of them to panic while fleeing.
The event occurred just a few weeks after another Nyatike resident, Lilian Akinyi, a mother and trader, drowned in the Migori River.
Meanwhile, the deceased's family is preparing to bury him in the first week of January 2024.
The body is currently being held in the Migori mortuary.
