Nairobi — Search teams at a village hit by a landslide in Kakamega North District yesterday retrieved two more bodies trapped in the mud and hinted they would complete the mission in two days.

Search parties comprising Kenya Red Cross Society, National Youth Service and villagers pulled out the bodies from the mud at midday with help of earth movers.

The bodies were identified as those of Kefa Mutonyi and his wife Flora Khevali who perished along with their grand daughter, Sheila Boiyo.

This brings the number of people killed in the mudslide to seven. Khuvasali village is on the fringe of Nandi escapement.

Area district commissioner Kenneth Nyaiyo said details from relatives indicated only three bodies were trapped in the sludge.

"We are now working on the possibility that only one body could be still buried somewhere in the mud and not 20 as earlier reported," Mr Nyaiyo told the Nation.

But as the administrator made the announcement, relatives and villagers called on the Government to continue the search.

Malava MP Soita Shitanda said the rescue teams had done their best and there was a remote possibility of finding any more bodies.

"Rescue teams have been working closely with the affected families and gathered information to try and establish the number of people who died in the mudslide," he said.

Health minister Charity Ngilu visited the village and donated 600 blankets, 220 mattresses, ten cartons of cooking oil, ten bales of wheat flour and 500 mosquito nets for women and children camping at the Khuvasali Dispensary.

She said drugs worth Sh1million had been supplied to the health facility.

Mr Shitanda said the Government through the Ministry of Special programmes had sent 200 bags of rice, 200(beans), 500 (maize) and 200 bags of cooking oil.

Poor response

He said the district Commissioner would coordinate distribution of the food to 24 families affected by the mudslide.

But the two ministers criticised the poor response to the disaster saying the army should have been sent to the village because they were better trained.

They said the search for bodies would have taken a shorter time if the army were involved.

"This is a serious a tragedy and the Government should have been involved fully in ongoing rescue efforts," added Mrs Ngilu.

They said the Government had enough resources and capacity to deal with disasters but had failed to coordinate its efforts. Red Cross said 139 people had been displaced.