The Kenya Red Cross Society team on Wednesday recovered the body of a 40-year old man who drowned in Lemunga dam in Laikipia County on Monday while finishing.
Mbugua Kiarie drowning shocked Lemunga village of Melwa location in Laikipia West constituency because he had been fishing in the dam for many years.
He was accompanied by his 13 year old son on Monday afternoon, November 10, 2025 when he suddenly sunk in the water as he was trying to set up fishing nets in the dam.
The son rushed home, located near the shores of the dam, to alert the people about the tragedy. Unfortunately, those who responded could only watch helplessly since none of them could dive into the water to help the drowning man.
Private divers who arrived later found it hard to navigate the water because the dam has dangerous tree stumps under water.
Isaac Nyambuto who had travelled from Ndaragwa in Nyandarua County for the body retrieving mission gave up after being injured by one of the tree stumps submerged in water.
A resident, Jeremiah Ndung’u expressed his disappointment with the Laikipia County government for allegedly diverting, to other use, millions of shillings set aside annually for disaster mitigation.
He said it is a shame that after about 15 years of devolution, Laikipia has no professional divers hired by the County.
“Laikipia has received close to Sh30 billion since inception of devolution but there is nothing to show for it,” Ndung’u said.
A village elder, Simon Ngachaku said Governor Joshua Irungu visited the village following a similar tragedy a while back where residents gave their views on what should be done to improve condition of the dam.
The dam is a major source of fish for people living around it. They sell their catch in towns of Rumuruti, Gatundia and Ol Jabet. It also offers water for irrigation and domestic use by the villagers.
“It seems all the views we gave during the Governor’s visit were just disregarded. We told him that the dam needs to be cleaned and the tree stumps removed so that responses can be faster in case of tragedy like the current one,” Ngachaku said.
Kelvin Mundoi, a private diver from the neighbouring Gatundia village urged the County government to empower them and employ some his colleagues to be available quickly when such tragedy happen.
The body was taken to Nyahururu County hospital mortuary by police.
By Antony Mwangi
