Déjà vu moment as bus veers off ferry at Likoni Channel
Likoni residents were left gasping for breath after a bus veered off a ferry at the Likoni Crossing Channel on Friday, February 7.
The driver of the Chania Executive bus drifted into the water while he was getting off the MV Kilindini Ferry onto the mainland bank, Kenya Ferry Services (KFS) announced on its Twitter page.
KFS also said that no one was injured in the morning incident and that it had resumed normal operations.
“A Channia executive bus has lost control while disembarking from kilindini ferry Mainland side sliding into the water line. Towing process is underway. No injuries reported, Ferry operations back to normal,” read the post by KFS.
EYEBROWS
The incident comes even as Kenyans are still smarting from series of ferry-related accidents.
In September, KFS made headlines locally and internationally when Mariam Kighenda and her daughter Amanda Mutheu plunged into the shark-infested Indian Ocean inside the car they were in, in a chilling incident that shook the world.
The tragedy saw all the KFS board members sent home following a directive by President Uhuru Kenyatta through a gazette notice.
In October 2019, Kenyans were left dumbstruck after KFS confessed that ferry users had been risking their lives on the Likoni and Mtongwe channels using unseaworthy ferries.
KFS Managing Director informed the National Assembly Public Investment Committee (PIC) that an international maritime body that inspects the quality of sea-vessels, Lloyd’s Register, had declared obsolete and decommissioned three of the six ferries in 2007.
What is more, the PIC heard that helmsmen operating the ferries were all unqualified and were holding certificates that had standards dating as far back as 1970.