Kenyan Honeymooners Missing in Zanzibar Ferry Accident

If you have info, contact the Kenya High Commission in Dar: info@kenyahighcom.org

URGENT APPEAL:
PLEASE HELP FIND THE KIRIMIS.
Martin Kirimi and Mary Mwangi are Kenyans, newlywed and were on honeymoon in Zanzibar. They haven't been heard of since the Zanzibar ferry accident. If you have any information, please contact the email address on the poster.

The MV Skagit sank in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Zanzibar on July 19, 2012.

http://swahilitime.blogspot.com/2012/07/ajali-ya-mv-skagitkalama.html

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By AGGREY MUTAMBOPosted Friday, August 3  2012

 

A Kenyan couple on honeymoon in Tanzania have gone missing since a ferry disaster in Zanzibar that killed 128 people.

Mr Martin Kirimi and his wife of three weeks, Mary Mwangi, had told relatives and friends that they would take a bus from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam and then the ferry to Zanzibar for their honeymoon.

Mr Kirimi from Nyambene in Meru County to the east, and his newly-wed wife, Mary, from Karatina in the central Nyeri County, were last heard of when they left for their 10-day honeymoon in Zanzibar.

Now relatives and friends fear the two may have been aboard the ill-fated ferry that sunk off the shores of Zanzibar two weeks ago.

Mr Kirimi, 30, was a nurse at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi while his wife was a kindergarten teacher in Westlands area of the capital city.

On Thursday, Mr Maina Kariuki, Mr Kirimi’s brother-in-law, told the Daily Nation newspaper they last talked on phone just before the couple entered Tanzania.

“We spoke around 9.21am when they were at the Namanga border. He promised to buy a mobile phone sim card while in Dar then he would call me to tell me the number they would be using while on honeymoon in Zanzibar,” said Mr Kariuki.

"They wanted to enjoy their privacy and ensure people would not disturb them. But Martin never called back. We are not sure if they arrived in the Tanzanian capital although the Dar Express bus company has told us that all passengers arrived safely at 9pm.”

The couple had planned to go to Zanzibar through Dar es Salaam by road to enjoy the scenery, use the ferry to the island and then come back by air, he said.

The Kirimis celebrated their wedding at the Seagull Hotel on Thika Road, spent two nights at another local hotel and on the evening of July 16, Mary’s sister hosted a dinner for the newlyweds at her Kasarani home in Nairobi.

“Martin and Mary were both excited,” said Mary’s sister, Priscillah Mwangi, barely able to conceal her distraught state.

That was the last time she saw her sister and her brother-in-law.

What is not clear is if the couple spent the night in Dar or proceeded to the Tanzanian archipelago.