The vessels of death should not be in use and heads must roll

The worst news you can ever receive as a father and husband is that your wife’s car reversed from the ramp of an unseaworthy ferry, plunged into a shark-infested section of the ocean and sank your wife and four-year-old daughter 60 metres deep.

This is not a scene from the 1999 movie Double Jeopardy starring Tommy Lee Jones and Ashley Judd. This is the current life of Mr John Wambua, an innocent, law-abiding, taxpaying Kenyan, who was going about his business on Sunday evening until his life changed for good.

As I write this, government officials are still scratching their heads about how to recover the bodies of the two victims, as recovery operations enter day six. It will be another difficult night for Mr Wambua, whose only crime was to send his wife and daughter to check on their farm in Kwale.

Mariam Kighenda and her four-year-old cute little daughter Amanda Mutheu did not deserve to die in the painful and inhumane manner that they did. It is the right of every Kenyan to board a ferry and reach their destination safe and sound.

I have used that route several times, and perhaps even boarded that ferry — who knows — and it pains me to think what would have gone through my mind if my car suddenly started reversing, plunging into the sea. I cannot begin to imagine the utter sense of desperation that Mariam felt in her final moments, when it was clear that she and her daughter would not survive that accident.

The deaths of Mariam and Amanda have also opened the lid on the pathetic state of the Kenya Ferry Services (KFS), the people responsible for ensuring that Kenyans and their goods are ferried safely from point A to point B. From corruption, millions of shillings that remain unaccounted for, to a lack of capacity to do their job, the sorry state of their equipment, a lack of manpower and unseaworthy vessels, the KFS is not just a government institution on its knees, it is dead and buried.

To think that 56 years after independence that the Kenya Ferry Services does not have an emergency team of lifeguards and divers to provide rescue services in such events is just shattering. That in 2019, the institution has to rely on amateur footage filmed by shell-shocked bystanders because it did not even care to instal CCTV cameras.

The institution does not even have the capacity to pay divers to do the job. The divers contracted to rescue Mariam and her daughter had to be assured first of their payment before risking their lives at sea.

Worse is that the Ministry of Transport has allowed KFS to continue its operations — or lack thereof — transporting millions of Kenyans, putting them at the heart of danger. This is in spite of endless warnings from the Auditor-General that our ferries are literally vessels of death.

Fellow Kenyans, if this does not make us angry, then I don’t know what will. It is easy for us to read Mariam’s story and dismiss it, probably because you don’t personally know her, but I want you to know that if it could happen to Mariam and her child, then it could happen to you or your loved one.

Today, it is Mr Wambua’s wife and child, tomorrow it could be your wife, husband, child or other relative. We must not allow and especially normalise such levels of incompetence and ineptitude from government institutions.

Government officials are allowing Kenyans to board unseaworthy vessels and getting away with it, and this needs to stop. There are individuals who pocketed money that was meant for safety and rescue operations that could have perhaps saved the lives of Mariam and Amanda, and nobody has called them to account, and neither have we made any efforts to recover the money.

We will not bring back Mariam and her daughter alive, but we must not allow this to happen to another family.

Finally, a self-respecting official would immediately hand in his or her resignation in the face of a tragedy like this. I don’t know how one can remain in office when tragedies of this kind occur under their watch.

It is clear that the deaths of Mariam and Amanda lie squarely at the hands of the ministry of Transport. Perhaps it is time for the officials in the ministry and departments touched by that tragedy to do the honourable thing and allow other people to ensure the safety of Kenyans.

Ms Chege is the director of the Innovation Centre at Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications.