KDF soldier, two sons drown in an open pool at Makongeni area

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Grief engulfed the residents of Makongeni as the bodies of three members of the same family were retrieved from a quarry filled with rain water at Barracks Grounds on Wednesday morning.

The three, the father who is a Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldier and his two sons drowned on Tuesday evening.

According to a police report made at Makongeni Police Station, the incident happened at around 5pm Tuesday evening.

The two boys, Joseph Githinji, 11, and his brother Vincent Muchui, 7, were swimming in a marram  excavation quarry filled with rain water within the KDF barracks grounds when they slipped into the quarry believed to be 30 feet deep.

When their father heard of the incident, he is said to have rushed at the scene, took a tyre and jumped into the pool in an attempt to save his sons.

Unfortunately, he too is said to have drowned in the process.

Efforts by the KDF's headquarter's Disaster Response Unit to retrieve the bodies went underway later in the night and it was not until Wednesday morning that they successfully managed to retrieve the tree bodies.

The father, 40-year old  Sergeant James Meme Kobia is an officer at the 12 Engineers Thika Barracks.