This archive report was first published on 2 October 2019.
On October 2, 2019, Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia appointed his Principal Secretary Esther Koimet to lead efforts to retrieve bodies and a vehicle that plunged into the Indian Ocean on Sunday.
Ms Koimet will lead a multi-agency team battling to pull out the bodies of 35-year-old Mariam Kighenda and her four-year-old daughter Amanda Mutheu.
The two bodies are said to be more than 60 meters underwater, and efforts to get them out were called off after three hours on Wednesday.
During the operation, robots from the Kenya Ports Authority were sent 40 meters deep into the ocean to try and locate the bodies and the car.
Government Spokesman Cyrus Oguna told journalists at the ocean in Mombasa, 'There were other things other than the vehicle.'
He added that divers are using their senses of touch in the search because of poor visibility, saying, 'The water is dirty and they cannot see.'
The operation will target nine other locations where the car is suspected to be, and the divers are now awaiting high tides to make another attempt.
