It is difficult to match the bravery and determination that Mr Zablon Lumbasia summons to retrieve dead bodies from rivers.
Better known as the “Good Samaritan”, Lumbasia says he has retrieved more than 70 bodies from rivers in western Kenya for more than 45 years.
Lumbasia shot to the national limelight four years ago when he accidentally retrieved the body of Meshack Yebei, an International Criminal Court (ICC) witness, from the River Yala.
Yebei, who was reportedly expected to testify at the ICC in The Hague, had been missing for three weeks.
Lumbasia had been called to help search for the bodies of two students who had drowned in the river. He first found the mutilated body of a grown-up man tied up in a sack.
The parents of the students rejected the decomposing body, and the police were called in to collect it. It was later established to be Yebei’s.
WORK ETHIC
It took the 60-year-old Lumbasia a total of 26 days diving into a deep section of the river before he retrieved the two bodies.
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“It was my most challenging task in my four decades of pulling out dead bodies from various rivers,” he says.
Lumbasia was born in Serem, Vihiga County, an area close to the border between Kakamega and Nandi counties.
He explained that traditional divers live by a strict code of conduct: they never bargain for payment, only accepting whatever bereaved families pay them.
“It is taboo for traditional divers to demand a specific amount of money or even cows after retrieving a body,” he says.
In 2009, he was summoned to Kisii County to help retrieve the body of a missing person from the River Gucha.
He retrieved it after three days and was paid Sh7,000. It was only enough to cover his bus fare and accommodation. He took it and left without complaining.
VULNERABLE VICTIMS
He has been retrieving bodies from rivers in the region since 1972, when he dropped out of school in Standard Four for lack of school fees.
Among the most vulnerable people when it comes to drowning, he says, are teachers and students returning home in the evening.
He says he has also retrieved many bodies of illegal timber loggers who drown while attempting to swim across swollen rivers at night to cut down trees in government forests.
Some of the loggers dive into rivers to evade arrest by forest guards.
Also retrieved regularly are bodies of cattle thieves and criminals running away from the police.
Lumbasia is also sometimes called to retrieve the bodies of suicide victims.
Lumbasia estimates that since 1972, more than 200 people have drowned in River Yala, located in former Western Province, and rivers Nzoia (Trans-Nzoia County), Nyando and Sondu in Kisumu County, Gucha in Kisii County and River Mogoon in Nandi County.
RITUALS
He says that before a search begins, especially in western Kenya, the bereaved family will slaughter a black ram and light a fire by the riverside “to chase away bad omens”.
Rituals and prayers are then conducted by elders. Among Christians, however, the bereaved family and church leaders will stay by the riverside conducting prayers for the body to be retrieved.
Lumbasia has always loved swimming in rivers, and, as a small boy, he often got into trouble with his parents and elder siblings for his love of water.
They even once bought him four donkeys so he could start an agricultural transport business, but he was not for it.
In 2003, he was asked to search for the body of a student in River Yala.
CAUTION
He jumped into the water in the presence of the police and Kenya Red Cross officials. After failing to spot him for two hours, they thought he had drowned.
But when they returned the following day, they found him still searching for the body a kilometre downstream. He was successful.
Lumbasia advises Kenyans to stay away from rivers when raining, because burst their banks.
“Kenya has very few divers. Thus, to avoid loss of lives, people should stay away from rivers when it rains. They should find other sources of water for domestic use and for their animals.”
He says several local authorities and county governments have engaged his services, though they often take credit.
To become a traditional diver, he says, one must be healthy and bold.
Lumbasia chairs the divers’ association in the western region.
TRAINING
Training to become a traditional diver takes six months. Among the tasks one must accomplish is to fetch a marked shilling coin or even a needle from the tens of feet of the deep, murky water.
The target object is placed in the water by an instructor. The training is rigorous and emphasises endurance. Many give up along the way.
None of the 47 counties has recruited a professional diver. Lumbasia wants county governments to provide diving equipment to traditional divers for quick response during disasters.
He says the western region has less than 15 trained divers due to the tough training and paltry income.
He has faced many dangers over the years, including an incident in 2010 when he was almost attacked by a python when searching for a body in River Yala. He managed to swim to safety.