Kahale lost his wife, four children, his sister and her three children, his aunt and the boat captain who was also a relative.
The accident occurred on Sunday around 10.30am at Manda Bruno.
Speaking from his bed at his home in Kizingitini on Wednesday, Kahale commonly known to the locals as Mwanati narrated how he held onto his four children for over four hours after their boat capsized.
Kahale said he made sure some of the children held onto him as he tried swimming to safety but one by one he watched as the children plagued by fatigue and dizziness, released their grasps on him and fell into the deep ocean.
Only the politician survived the Sunday boat accident that left 10 of his family members and the boat coxswain dead.
The boat only had two men, Kahale, and the coxswain while the rest were women and children.
All this while, he held onto the all the six children that were on board and swam for over four hours in the hope that would find help but to no avail since they were in the middle of the deep seas where boats rarely ply.
He said when it started raining, most of the children were by this time fatigued and that’s when they let go one by one and died as he watched.
“The boat was overpowered by the high tides and capsized.I have been at sea for years as a fisherman and so I tried having the children hold onto me as I swam to rescue my wife, sister, and aunt which proved difficult due to the weight, you know they were adults and so I was overwhelmed and had to watch them swept off one by one as they cried for me to save them," said the weeping politicians.
Kahale said the last child let go and died at around 6pm on Sunday evening .
The politician says he swam the whole night before he came to an island where he was found pacing by the rescue team.
“I could see some boats from far but no matter how loud I tried to scream for help, they couldn’t hear me.The last child died at around 6pm on Sunday. I swam the entire night before I spotted land and by then it was already dawning,” he said.
Kahale has sent an appeal to the national and county governments to increase marine patrols which should be functional 24/7 in order to be able to rescue people when accidents occur at sea.
He belives his family would still be alive if there had been active marine patrols on the Indian ocean.
“The kids held onto life for over four hours for God’s sake and I believe that was enough time for them to have been saved if there had been patrols,”he said.
Meanwhile, one more body belonging to Kahale’s sister has been retrieved near Manda Bruno
According to the head of the search team Ali Awadh,the ill fated boat has also been recovered at Shanga island in Lamu east.
He said the body and boat were retrieved by local divers who have pitched camp in the area since the accident occurred.
-The Star/ CHETI PRAXIDES