Teachers ignored beach boys advise in Muranga school boys tragedy

The teachers who supervised the seven students who drowned off Diani Beach on Wednesday evening ignored beach operators’ warnings about the high tide.

The operators, who were involved in rescue attempts, said that they had warned the pupils and their teachers before the tragic incident.

Beach operators at the scene have claimed that the death toll could have gone up to 11 had they not responded promptly.

Beach operator Juma Omar accused visitors from other regions of Kenya who tour the beaches of routinely ignoring them, despite the fact that they are well informed about the ocean.

“We are professionals when it comes to issues of the sea and the beach, but the schoolteachers did not want our help. We wanted to supervise them while they swum and they could have avoided such deaths,” Omar said.

He said he and the other operators sat ashore and watched the children.

“As we were sitting and watching the kids swim from afar, we noticed some of them floating – which notified us that something was wrong. We got into the water and saved four,” said Omar.

Another operator, Paul Waweru, said, “We have decided that no children will be allowed to swim without being supervised by us. Parents or teachers accompanying their children to Diani Beach have to follow our rules, failing which they will not be allowed to swim because we don’t want to see more lives lost."

The seven pupils of St Martin’s Primary School in Kahuro, Murang’a county, were all set to sit the KCPE later this year.

They were part of a group of 56 students who visited the Coast for an annual trip and were to return on Saturday.

On Thursday morning, parents and other school stakeholders gathered at Pandya Hospital mortuary in Mombasa as they waited for police and postmortem reports on the boys.

The last body was retrieved at 8pm and all the bodies were ferried to Pandya mortuary, where shocked parents and students had camped and were being counselled as they identified their relatives.

The students, aged 13 to 14 years, were swept away by strong tides as they swam off the shores of the Indian Ocean in the Bir-Badu area of Diani.

Head teacher Peter Mwangi said, "We have lost a very dear team. It is a big loss to the school and their families. They were among the best in class,” he said.

Hundreds of kilometers away in Murang’a, distraught families thronged the school’s compound after receiving the news that their children had lost their lives.

In the neighboring Mugoiri village, Zawerio Nduire is mourning the loss of his grandson Joseph Kariuki. Nduire said Kariuki was an orphan as his single mother passed away years ago, leaving him and his three siblings under their grandparents’ care.

In the next village, Gituto, Mary Wambui Njuguna, deputy principal of Gituto Secondary, is also mourning the death of her son – Cyrus Muriu.

Wambui said she talked to her son on the fateful day as they made arrangements on how he would travel to their home in Kigumo after the tour.

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