Lamu,KENYA: The body of a Lamu Polytechnic student who went missing at sea during a swimming expedition with friends three days ago has been recovered.
Juma Mohamed,23,went swimming in a group of about 30 of his classmates at Shella Beach area in Lamu town but was never sighted after that.
His body was recovered by a local diver Khalifa Abdulkadir at Shella’s Peponi Hotel shores at around 5.15 am on Sunday having been washed ashore.
The diver alerted his team who picked up the body and took it to the King Fahad Hospital Morgue before alerting the police.
He was buried at the Langoni cemetery in Lamu town shortly after as per the Islamic tradition.
“It was floating in the shallow waters just right at the footsteps.I called in the rescue boat and we took the body to the hospital morgue.We have already buried him,”said Khalifa.
Lamu OCPD Juma Londo also confirmed that the body of the student had been recovered.
“The plan was to proceed with the search because you never know when someone is alive or deceased until you find them.We have officially called off the search now that we already have a body,”said Londo.
The deceased who hails from Witu division in Lamu West was pursuing an electrical engineering course at the Lamu Polytechnic and was in his first year.
His friends said the deceased didn’t know how to swim but was curious to give it a try when he fatally drowned.
This comes just a month after two fishermen drowned at the Manda Maweni area after their boat capsized on June 2.
They had been part of a five member fishing crew when heavy tides overturned their boat.Three were rescued.
