New Details On Man Who Drowned In River While Celebrating His Birthday

Fresh details have emerged on an incident whereby a man in Kirinyaga County drowned in River Nyamindi while celebrating his birthday with his wife.

A report by Citizen Digital shed more light on a near-3-minute video of the final moments of Kelvin Muthomi, who slipped into the Nyamindi falls on Thursday, February 2 and died.

The video was captured by the 28-year-old’s wife who helplessly watched him run out of breath in the water while kicking and screaming. 

Meanwhile, Muthomi tried to swim his way out of the water to no success, occasionally disappearing below before reappearing back up.

He began to scream for help on discovering that he does not know how to swim, while another unidentified person who was also in the river water with him at the time yelled instructions towards him on how to safely swim away.

The person eventually swims to Muthomi’s rescue, but Muthomi unintentionally shoves him underwater amidst the wave of panic flooding him, which he showed in his flipping and flapping. 

The man reappeared at the surface and resorted to casually swimming away in fear of drowning just like Muthomi, abandoning him as the screams continued.

Meanwhile, Muthomi's wife was shouting for help in the background while continuously motivating her husband to swim out of the water.

After a couple of minutes, while Muthomi’s wife searched the thickets for a stick to help pull him out of the water, everything goes silent in the water. It is at this point that she dropped the phone and let out a loud shrill cry upon realizing that he fully drowned.

A police officer at the scene had earlier revealed that the man dived into the river to swim despite being unable to.

“They came here to celebrate the man’s birthday but unfortunately, he did not know how to swim. We have been looking for him for three hours but we have not been able to find (his body) anywhere,” the officer stated. 

One of the residents prior to the ordeal stated that she had offered the couple drinking water at her home but was unaware that they were headed to the river. 

“We did not know their intention when they came to the river but I later received a phone call from the lady informing me that the man had drowned,” he explained.

The deceased hailed from Meru County but worked at a Kirinyaga hotel where he had requested the day off to celebrate his birthday when the tragedy happened.

Ngucui Assistant Chief George Mungai confirmed the incident saying Muthomi fell at around 4 pm and that his body has not yet been retrieved. The wife was taken to a police station to record a statement.

On Wednesday, January 18, 22-year-old Fridah Warau Kamuyu, and her lover, 39-year-old Kiambu businessman, Tirus Maina, drowned in a dam at Titanic area in Juja, Kiambu County while on a late night picnic inside their car which was parked at the edge of the dam, known to be a popular hangout spot at the time.