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Kenyan father dies trying to rescue drowning daughter in US lake


The bodies of a Kenyan man and his 11-year-old daughter have been retrieved from a Texas lake where they drowned.

Benjamin Nzavi and the girl drowned at around 11.30am on on Saturday morning in Lake Whitney, which is about 128 kilometres from the city of Dallas.

According to eyewitnesses, Mr Nzavi’s daughter ran into the water to swim, fell into a void and went under.  Her father jumped in trying to rescue her but both never resurfaced.

A boater called the authorities after he tried to rescue both victims and was unsuccessful.

A search which began at about 2.45pm went on until nightfall and had to be called off due to poor visibility.

RECOVERED BODIES

The search team resumed on Sunday morning and they recovered the bodies a few feet from each other.

The family had just moved to the area a couple of weeks ago and were living a short distance from where their bodies were recovered.

Mr Nzavi’s wife had arrived in the US few weeks ago from the UK. She is currently expecting their child and about 14 weeks along.

Mr Nzavi was a ballistics engineer in Milford, Texas where he worked after graduating with a degree in Chemical Engineering with a minor in explosives engineering.

At the time of his death, he was pursuing a master’s degree in explosives engineering at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.