By REUBEN OLITA
September 14, 2026|They had travelled to Mombasa to celebrate family — a rare reunion for siblings scattered between Nairobi and the coast.
By Sunday morning, Ken Barasa, 39, and his sister Cynthia, 32, were lying in a mortuary, their dream of a boat ride to Fort Jesus having ended in the cold waters of the Indian Ocean.
Ken was no ordinary visitor to Mombasa. He was a man with a plan — preparing to contest the Malaba South Ward MCA seat in 2027, and his family says he was the one they all leaned on.
“Ken was our breadwinner,” his brother, Benard Caxton, told journalists, his voice heavy with grief. “We don’t know how we will move on.”
The two siblings had left Nairobi on Thursday with Ken’s wife, Jane, and her child, eager to visit their elder sister, Tredd, who lives in Mombasa.
On Saturday, the family decided to take a boat ride to Fort Jesus. It was meant to be a light-hearted afternoon — the kind of memory families hold onto for years.
Instead, it became the last time they would all be together.
On the return journey, strong winds rocked the boat, throwing Ken and Cynthia off balance and into the ocean. Jane and Tredd clung desperately to the vessel until rescuers reached them. Jane’s child was also pulled from the water and rushed to Coast General Hospital, where the little one received first aid.
But Ken and Cynthia disappeared beneath the waves.
Rescuers searched through the night, the family waiting on the shore with prayers that would not be answered. Their bodies were recovered on Sunday morning and taken to Coast General Hospital mortuary.
Now, the family is making the painful journey back to Mombasa — not for a holiday, but to attend postmortems and arrange for the bodies to be transported to Kadekai village in Malaba South Ward.
The deaths have left a double wound: emotional heartbreak and a financial burden the family says it is struggling to bear. With Ken, their provider, gone, relatives are appealing for help to give the siblings a dignified send-off.
For a family that set out to celebrate togetherness, the trip to Mombasa will forever be remembered as the one that took two of their own.