Nakuru family pleads for help to recover body of 'drowned' fisherman

The family of a 33-year-old man suspected to have drowned in Lake Nakuru is appealing to the county government for urgent assistance to help retrieve his body.

The man, identified as Daniel Muriu went missing on March 21 at around Lake Nakuru area. His family is now apprehensive of not recovering his body since they do not have properly equipped divers.

Simon Gatimu Muthoni, the elder brother of the missing man, says the family has spent nearly a week running from police stations to other places in search of him with minimal progress.

“It's been a week now, and it keeps getting difficult by the day,” Gatimu says, his voice heavy with exhaustion.

He explains they only learned of Muriu’s drowning incident on March 22, as reported by fellow fishermen who were with him.

“They told us that they entered the water at 8:00 PM - they often would go in and come out, but he did not come out. They waited about an hour, assuming he had used another route, but he was nowhere to be found. They looked for him at all police stations but could not find him. That is when they called our sister, who informed me, and I immediately left Naivasha (where we live) for Nakuru in search of him,” Gatimu narrates.

He adds that on the fateful day, Muriu was in the company of more than ten fishermen who had entered the lake on foot, and as everyone else came out, he didn’t.

Gatimu notes that Muriu was no stranger to the water, having worked as a fisherman for not less than eight years, starting in Naivasha before relocating to Nakuru, where he had been fishing for two years.

“We went to report the matter to the Barut police station and found that the matter had already been reported. We have since been working with the police and KWS to find him to no avail,” he says, adding that they have had three opportunities to get into the lake in search of him.

The family says that despite the help they have currently received, the search effort has been hampered by a critical lack of diving equipment and personnel, and that the ones provided are ill-equipped for the scale of the operation, especially with less time allocated.

Gatimu is now appealing directly to the Nakuru County Government to provide professional divers and the necessary resources to resume a proper search.

“We need expert divers to come and help us,” he says, adding that it is the only place Muriu is because they have looked for him in multiple places and found nothing, leaving them clinging to hope.