The death toll in the Homa Bay tragedy in which a boat capsized on Tuesday in Lake Victoria near Pier Beach has risen to six after the body of a minor was retrieved on Wednesday.
The boat, which had 19 passengers on board from Homa Bay Pier Beach heading to Ndhuru Beach in Suba North constituency, capsized just about 400 meters from the landing site.
On Tuesday evening, two people, a woman and an infant, were confirmed dead and four others bodies including that of a minor were retrieved on Wednesday.
Eight passengers were on Tuesday rescued and hospitalized at the County Referral facility where they are still undergoing treatment.
However, search efforts for bodies of the other remaining passengers who died in the boat tragedy are still underway.
According to Homa Bay County Commissioner Moses Lilan, a temporary command centre has been established at the beach and it consists of a multi-agency team from the Kenya Maritime Authority, Kenya Coast Guard Services, Beach Management Units as well as the County Government Department of Disaster.
Lilan added that the accident might have occurred because the boat was overloaded with passengers and luggage like bags of cement, timber, pieces of iron sheets and food stuff beyond its recommended capacity.
However, the boat coxswain Felix Ouma, who survived the incident, said bad weather and water hyacinth are the main factors that led to the accident.
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