26 killed in Kisumu road accident

At least 26 people have been killed and four more sustained serious injuries in a multiple road accident involving a lorry, a matatu and boda boda motorcycles along the Kisumu - Kakamega highway on Friday night.

According to an eye witness, a speeding lorry from Kakamega rammed into a stationery matatu, which had been flagged down by a police officer at the Kibos junction for routine inspection.

The speeding lorry was also flagged down but failed to stop forcing the police to remove the road block spikes to avoid a collision with oncoming vehicles but that failed.

The lorry swerved after running over the spikes, hitting a Kakamega bound matatu and killing all passengers on board while scattering their bodies on the road.

The accident also claimed the lives of cyclists and pedestrians before the lorry collided with a second matatu at a nearby petrol station.

Blame game

Enraged members of public blamed the police for negligence for erecting the road block spikes at a blind spot resulting into the accident.

Police were forced to fire teargas to disperse the crowd, which has stopped them from transporting the dead bodies to Nyanza Provincial General Hospital.

“Had the police gave the lorry a safe passage, it would have been a different case. The road block was at the end of a slope and there was no way the driver would have brought the lorry to a stop,” said Eric Omondi, an eye witness.

However, the Provincial traffic boss Jonathan Katsole exonerated his officers and stated that he would look into the possibility of relocating the check-point to a safer location.

On Saturday, shocked family members and friends of the victims who gathered at the morgue to identify bodies also blamed the accident on police negligence.

Nyanza Provincial Hospital boss Dr Juliana Otieno said the four survivors had regained consciousness and were responding well to treatment.

Recollecting incident

“Our matatu had been detained at the police check-point for a while when I heard a bang. I was thrown out of the window on impact," Mr Mule Randiri said from his hospital bed.

Another survivor from the second matatu, Mr James Kinanda said that there was a tussle between the police officers and the matatu tout moments before the incident.

“The tout told one police officer that the speeding lorry seemed to have lost control but he was ignored. Now, this is the result of that,” said Mr Kinanda while pointing to the heavily bandaged injuries on his head and chest.

On Saturday, Kisumu Town West MP Olago Aluoch said he was disappointed that the police still maintained the check-point at a black spot.

“We blame the loss of lives on the police and the Ministry of Roads. I have on several occasions requested for erection of speed bumps but nothing has been done,” he said.

In May 2006, Benga Maestro Owino Misiani was killed at the same police check-point when a lorry rammed into a vehicle under similar circumstances.

Three months later, ten people were killed at the same location.