Woman drowns while livestreaming on Facebook

A 24-year-old Kenyan woman died in Canada while livestreaming an afternoon swim on her Facebook page.

The woman, identified as Hellen Nyabuto, was swimming at a hotel pool in Chatsworth, Ontario when the incident occurred. According to a spokesman for the Ontario Provincial Police, her death is not being considered suspicious.

The video, which has now been removed from Facebook, shows Nyabuto smiling at the camera before she moves to the deep end of the pool. She then disappears from the camera, but the viewers can see some splashing and hear some faint cries before everything goes silent.

"I watched that video. I cried. It is terrible. She communicated with me two days before she perished. She sounded very fine and I was very happy," her sobbing father, Nyabuto John Kiyondi, told CNN.

The video stops only after guests arrive at the pool and find Nyabuto in the water. She had died by the time paramedics arrived at the scene.

"An individual was removed from the water and pronounced deceased after life saving measures were unsuccessful," the Ontario Provincial Police said in a statement later.

Nyabuto moved to Canada in 2018. She had been working as a care worker since 2020. She was the only breadwinner for her family in Kenya. She had worked all throughout the pandemic to help people at care homes.

"She worked with seniors right until the end. She really had a passion for that," a close friend, Alfonce Nyamwaya, told the Toronto Star.

The family has now set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds so her body can be repatriated to Kenya. Her father is now worried about how he will be able to sustain his family now that his loving and supportive daughter is no more.

"She was assisting me financially to educate her siblings, particularly in terms of school fees and other expenses. I am stuck now and back to square one. I'm wondering how her younger siblings will continue schooling," he added.