12th student dies of bus crash injuries

The death toll from the Kisii-Nyamache bus crash has risen to 16 after a female student succumbed to injuries in theatre at the Kenyatta National Hospital.

Acting hospital CEO, Dr Simon Monda on Saturday told the Sunday Nation that eight other students had undergone successful operations.

“She died of cardiac arrest, and our attempts to resuscitate her were unsuccessful,” Dr Monda said by phone. Another female student who was to be flown from Kisumu is being watched closely by doctors. “We really felt bad about the loss, but she had multiple injuries,” Dr Monda said.

He said the students who were airlifted to Nairobi for specialised treatment after a presidential directive on Thursday were responding well to treatment.

The overloaded bus rolled at twilight last Wednesday in the accident that initially took the lives of 11 students and four teachers. According to Thabitha Matekwa, the team leader of doctors who brought the patients to KNH from Kisii for specialised treatment, four students are still in theatre while two have been released.

Two of those being treated in hospital are pedestrians who were struck by the rolling bus.

“We have no alarming cases; all the students are responding well to treatment and soon we expect to start releasing them,” Ms Matekwa said.

The Rioma Secondary School bus tipped over at Nyambude in Sameta District on the Itumbe-Nyamache road as the driver, who was initially reported to have died in the crash, tried to negotiate a sharp bend on a steep slope. The driver was later confirmed to be alive but hospitalised with injuries at Kisii Level 5 hospital with other survivors.

The 87 passengers from different schools were being driven to Gucha for the annual Kisii County secondary school ball games.

“I was shocked to receive the news, I was worried that the worst had happened but am thankful that he made it,” said Thomas Maroko, who had travelled from Kisii to visit a patient at KNH in Nairobi.

He thanked the government for it speed in rescuing the survivors and airlifting several to Nairobi. “Most of the patients made it due to the swiftness of taking them to hospital,” he said.

President Kenyatta promised the government would foot the hospital bills.

Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo said school authorities, who allowed the bus to transport 87 instead of the licensed 54 passengers, as well as traffic police officers on the route who failed to stop the overloaded bus would be held responsible for the accident.

Efforts to reach the Nyakeyo secondary school headteacher were unsuccessful because his mobile phone went unanswered.