Mystery into pupil’s drowning deepens as coach set to appear in court

As detectives arraign Visa Oshwal’s swimming coach in court following the mysterious drowning of a pupil at the school, questions are now emerging over how the incident happened on a day the boy did not have swimming lessons.

Ilyaas Abdikarim Ali Mohamud, a Grade Two pupil had transferred to the school a day before the unfortunate tragedy struck.

On the fateful morning, his uncle dropped him at the school at around 7 am hoping to pick him up later in the evening not knowing that would be the last day they would be seeing him alive.

In the evening, the boy could not be found and a frantic search at the school that lasted till midnight yielded no fruit.

The family's lawyer, Danstan Omari, told The Eastleigh Voice that the search extended to the pool where some other students were swimming at the time he was discovered missing, but he was not found.

The search however ended on Wednesday afternoon when the school called the family to inform them that the boy had been found dead as a result of drowning at the pool.

By the time the family was getting to the school, the boy’s body had been removed from the pool.

They found him in a swimming costume.

Shocked at the news of his death, the family questioned why the body was in a costume on a day that his class had no scheduled swimming lessons.

A teacher confirmed that before his disappearance, he had asked for permission to go to the toilet but did not return to class.

“This is a case of high levels of negligence, if the child left class and failed to return for over one hour, did the teacher not get suspicious that something bad might have happened to him?” wondered Mohamed Adan, a friend of the family.

Also in question is how the body was allegedly found in the pool while a search in the pool the previous night had yielded nothing.

The family is questioning when exactly the boy drowned and whether his body had already been in the pool when the last group of swimming students were leaving, without being noticed.

The family from Eastleigh, as well as the community, have further questioned why the body was discovered 24 hours after he went missing.

“These are the questions we are waiting for the probe to answer. What type of drowning was it? Was it accidental, suicidal or forced (in that case murder)? That will be determined by the DCI because it is circumstantial,” Mr Omari said.

Others have inquired as to whether anyone witnessed the boy entering or drowning in the pool, as well as whether anyone attempted to resuscitate him.

On Thursday DCI homicide detectives spent a better part of their day at the school in Parklands collecting samples to help with the probe as their colleagues interrogated more staff trying to piece up details that would help unravel the mysterious drowning.

At the same time, Ministry of Education officials spent the day at the Principal’s office in closed-door meetings with the management as worried parents flocked to the school concerned over the safety of their children.

“We came here in search of answers and just to be sure that all is well with our children,” some of the parents said as they discussed the incident in groups within the compound.

Normal activities seemed disrupted on Thursday as some of the children were caught up in their parents’ discussions and others engaged in their usual play at the field during break times.

From mere observation, the pool that is surrounded by a live fence and accessed by a small gate is a dangerous area as it is located right next to a football pitch where pupils run to play during break times.

Though the gate remained locked on Thursday, without supervision, the possibility of a child straying and getting to the pool is very likely to occur.

The poolside, however, was kept under watch by a school guard, who repeatedly barred students from approaching the police's yellow line that surrounded it, signifying an active crime scene. The incident is one of several recent reports of children dying at schools under mysterious circumstances.

Investigations will unravel whether the coach had a role to play in the boy’s death and if so, whether he had any accomplices.

“For now we treat him as a person of interest. Once we have established everything, we shall be able to tell what exactly transpired,” Gigiri Sub-County Criminal Investigations Officer Robinson Cherenje told The Eastleigh Voice on Thursday.