Two confirmed dead in Nairobi accident

Police have confirmed that two people died on the spot in twin accidents along Nairobi's Thika road on Saturday morning that left scores with injuries.

Initial accounts from eye witnesses had indicated that at least nine people died in the early morning accidents.

The grisly accidents occurred at a notorious black spot next to Utalii College where the highway descends into a shallow valley before rising to the hilly terrain surrounding the Muthaiga police station.

The accidents occurred on opposite sides of the highway, with the first causing the other.

According to accounts of eye witnesses, the first accident occurred at about 5.30 am when a bus travelling to Mandera from Nairobi’s Eastleigh area hit a matatu from behind along the highway.

The incident is said to have angered both the passengers and crew of the matatu, who parked the vehicle at the roadside, alighted and started hurling stones at the bus which was still in motion - albeit at a reduced speed.

Fearing for his life, the bus driver is said to have jumped off the moving bus.

With no driver to control its movement, the bus hit another vehicle that was ahead of it before swerving into a ditch.

It is the ensuing commotion, according to the witnesses, that could have caused the second accident, which occurred on the side of the highway that directed traffic into the city.

The driver of a passenger bus coming from the opposite direction and heading to the city is said to have lost control as a result of the commotion caused by the first accident. It fell across the road and a smash up involving three more matatus followed.

The traffic department is yet to establish the exact number of casualties figures, according to a police inspector based at Pangani the police station.

At the time of going to press, police were at the scene co-ordinating rescue operations with an ambulance from Kenyatta National Hospital and another from a private hospital ferrying bodies and the injured to the hospital.

Early this month, six people died after a trailer rammed into a matatu on Nairobi's Waiyaki Way.