Comoros probes registration status of ill-fated boat

The government of Comoros is investigating whether a boat that killed seven people in the Indian ocean as it drifted towards Kenya was duly registered.

This emerged as eight men who were rescued by fishermen and Kenya navy officers in Malindi on Monday evening continued recuperating at the Malindi Sub-County Hospital.

Comoros acting consular Mohammed Farhan told the Nation he was working with the maritime department in his country to establish whether the vessel was registered to operate in the Indian Ocean waters.

Mr Farhan said his government was finding it difficult to get more details on the boat since no distress call seemed to have been made on it to the maritime department.

“The government recommends that all vessels be fitted with a tracker and communication gadgets. But it is hard to establish how the boat was operating since the captain was among the seven who perished,” said the acting consular.

Mr Farhan said the Comoran government had already communicated with the relatives of the passengers regarding the incident and status of their kin.

“I am planning to travel to Malindi to get the details of the boat but it appears the vessel was not registered and did not have communication gadgets. However, I will give more details once we are done with the ongoing investigation,” he said.

“We had three cases of missing vessels and eight missing people. We found four and are still looking for four more people who remain unaccounted for, but chances of getting them are slim, since a boat was found in the deep waters without people and we ascertained it was from Comoros,” he added.

The official said out of the four whose whereabouts had been traced, two were found in Lamu, Kenya, while the other two were found in Tanzania, clarifying further that the four had nothing to do with the boat that washed up in Malindi on Monday.  

Mr Farhan said he had communicated with doctors at Malindi Sub-county Hospital and had been assured the survivors were responding well, though they were still weak and yet to start consuming solid food.

"They are still consuming food through intravenous injections," he said. "We are already working on their travel documents here in Mombasa and as soon as they recover, the Comoros government will fly them to reunite with their families."

Yesterday, well-wishers including staff from Mombasa Cement Company thronged the hospital with clothes and other donations. 

The eight survivors were found unconscious by fishermen in Watamu, Kilifi County, after the vessel they were sailing in from Nzuani Island to Mayotte Island in Comoros broke down before drifting towards the Kenyan coast.

The sailors had spent more than three weeks adrift in the ocean, watching helplessly as seven of their relatives, including a pregnant woman, her husband and two children, died.

The eight who were admitted to Malindi Sub-county Hospital are Nassiru Tawidu, Mohammed Ahmed, Mahmud Hassan, Mohammed Saidwahi, Samin Mohammed, Samir Mahmud and Haruna Huseni.

On Tuesday the sailors narrated their 22-day ordeal to the Nation, detailing how they survived on raw fish and salty sea and the pain of having to throw bodies into the sea to keep their wrecked vessel afloat.

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