A swimming excursion with friends on Tuesday turned tragic for a Kenyan student in Australia after she drowned.
Sharon Jepkosgei Kigen, who was still new in the country after arriving in Australia in November 2022, drowned at Sydney’s south-west on Tuesday afternoon, according to 9News.
Emergency services were called to Georges River at Macquarie Fields after she “failed to resurface” when swimming at about 3.45pm local time.
New South Wales (NSW) Police said they searched the water to find her.
“Officers from The Traffic and Highway Patrol entered the water along with members of the public and commenced to search the water where the woman was located and brought to the shoreline,” NSW Police said in a statement.
NSW Ambulance paramedics performed Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) but she could not be revived.
She was a student at Australian Catholic University-North Sydney.
Ms Kigen hailed from Moiben, Uasin Gishu, and now her family is appealing for financial assistance to repatriate her body to Kenya for burial.
Her family and friends have since set up a GoFundMe page to collect money and are targeting to raise Sh2.5 million (AUD$20,000) to enable her body repatriated to Kenya.
This is the second incident in less than six months of a Kenyan drowning abroad.
In August, friends and family watched in horror as a healthcare worker drowned in a pool while filming a Facebook livestream.
Hellen Nyabuto, a Kenyan nursing student working in Canada, died during the stream.
In the video, Nyabuto, 24, was seen speaking to viewers at the shallow end of the pool before swimming offscreen into the deeper water.
As she moved out of frame, she was heard calling for help. Minutes later, the livestream went silent.
The livestream continued for hours until other motel residents come into view as they went swimming in the pool. The same swimmers discover Nyabuto’s body and called the motel’s front desk.
She was buried in October at her parents’ home in Getare-Misesi village, Bomachoge Chache constituency, Kisii County.
