13 buried in mass grave hours after bus accident
Daniel OnyanchA | NATION
Thirteen people died and several others were injured when this Mandera-bound bus rolled near Mwingi town. The victims were buried at the Mwingi Muslim Cemetery in a mass grave.
Thirteen people died and several others were injured when a bus they were travelling in crashed on Monday.
And the victims were buried in the afternoon according to Muslim rites at the Mwingi cemetery.
The Mandera-bound bus rolled several times on a steep stretch near Mutwangombe market, 15km from Mwingi town on the Thika-Garissa highway.
Driver lost control
Survivors told the Nation that the driver lost control of the bus while overtaking a pick-up. He escaped with bruises and police are looking for him.
Twenty nine passengers were taken to Mwingi District Hospital, 10 with fractures.
Mr Adan Weye, who broke a shoulder joint, said the driver was not speeding when he lost control of the 62-seater bus.
“The speed was normal, the road is smooth but the driver was avoiding to hit the pick-up as he overtook it. That’s why he lost control,” he said.
Another survivor, Mr Abdulnassir Hassan, said: “I don’t know exactly what happened, the driver lost control and the car veered off the road, and his efforts to regain control threw the bus in the opposite direction where it landed into a ditch and rolled.”
Mwingi police boss Kenneth Kimani said survivors’ accounts pointed to human error, adding that his officers were looking for the driver for questioning.
Mr Kimani said the bus had been checked at a nearby police roadblock and allowed to proceed. He said given the time it had taken between Nairobi and the accident area, the speed was okay.
Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka arrived at the scene, which is in his Mwingi North constituency, after it emerged that the victims were Muslims and had to be buried Monday.
Mr Musyoka flew to the area with MPs Mohammed Hussein Ali (Mandera East), David Musila (Mwingi South) and Isaac Muoki (Kitui South) to condole with the bereaved families and console the injured.
The leaders discussed plans for a mass burial of victims before proceeding to meet the injured in hospital.
“We are losing lives through accidents as if the country is at war. The casualty numbers are so worrying and all that needs to be done either through sustained enforcement, policy review or even national prayers must be done to rid this country of such tragedies,” the VP said.
Mr Musila and Mr Muoki called for inter-faith prayers to “correct the wrongs visiting death on Kenyans.”
Mr Musyoka directed local district commissioner Peter Kinuthia to identify a burial site, while a construction firm offered to dig a mass grave near the accident scene.
It was later decided that the dead would be buried at Mwingi Muslim Cemetery.
Mr Ali attended burial prayers at a local mosque before the mass burial at the cemetery.
He said he and Mandera Central MP Abdikadir Mohammed had consulted families of the victims about the Mwingi burial.
The accident occurred just two days after another one claimed 11 lives near Voi town on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway. (READ:12 die in Kenya road crash)
Police and the Transport Licensing Board have launched a nationwide crackdown on unroadworthy vehicles.
