A sombre mood engulfed residents of Usire sub-location, Bondo sub-county after an incident where a 35-year-old woman and her twin children drowned in River Yala.
The woman identified as Everline Atieno Otiu is said to have gone to wash clothes together with her two children at the banks of River Yala when they drowned under unclear circumstances.
According to the area Assistant Chief Austin Bunde, the woman who is a resident of Mileng’a village was discovered to have drowned when her husband came home in the evening and found her missing.
He says that upon enquiry into her whereabouts, the husband was informed that she had gone to wash clothes at the river bank, prompting the husband to walk down to the river. When he arrived he found the clothes but his wife and children were missing.
The administrator said that in the event, the husband together with other relatives who were already converging at the river bank got information that the body of one of the twins had been recovered from across the river, a confirmation that indeed the woman and the two children had drowned.
Bunde stated that the family continued with the search until late in the evening before they resumed the search this morning. They luckily managed to recover the body of the woman from the river.
The assistant chief who confirmed the incident, said that a search is underway to retrieve the body of the remaining child adding that as a tradition, the bodies which have already been recovered are still lying at the river bank as they await the retrieval of the remaining one.
Elsewhere in Gem sub-county, the bodies of a 22-year-old man and a 9-year-old girl who drowned in River Yala on Tuesday this week have been retrieved.
The deceased James Ombima is said to have met his untimely death while trying to rescue Mitchelle Adhiambo who was drowning after she slipped into the river when drawing water.
According to James’ elder brother Samuel Nyadue, he was attending to his vegetable farm at the river bank when he heard one of the children screaming that Mitchelle was drowning. He immediately rushed to rescue the minor, however, his efforts were rendered futile after he drowned while attempting to rescue the girl.
The bodies have since been removed by the police and taken to the Yala sub-county hospital mortuary awaiting a postmortem.
