Eight mourners die in night road crash in Nyandarua

A village in Kinangop, Nyandarua County, is mourning the deaths of eight members of a church in a road accident on Tuesday night.

The victims were returning from a burial in Kiriaini Village, Murang’a, when their vehicle overturned, killing four of them on the spot.

They were all members of Vision in Christ and were from Kanamba Village. They lived within a radius of 150 metres.

The other four succumbed to their injuries as they were being treated at North Kinangop Catholic Hospital.

A woman and her one-and-half-year-old son were the sole survivors of the accident, which happened at a sharp bend along the Njabini-Engineer road at 8pm.

Ms Fidelis Wanja, who recounted the ordeal from her hospital bed, said their driver was attempting to overtake a cart pulled by a donkey but the vehicle rolled.

“The driver was overtaking a cart when he saw an oncoming vehicle and swerved off the tarmac then overturned.

“I held my son tightly and screamed for help. I only have God to thank for the miraculous escape,” Ms Wanja said.

She said she was pulled out of the vehicle and crawled to safety.

The accident happened less than three kilometres from the victims’ homes. The first people at the scene were fellow church members and villagers.

Medics at the Catholic Church-managed hospital said Ms Wanja was out of danger and was responding well to treatment. She suffered bruises.

A pastor, Mr John Mwangi, said he was in the same entourage and saw the vehicle overturning.

LANDED ON ITS ROOF

“I saw the vehicle fly into the air and then it overturned and landed on its roof. It was like a horror movie,” said the grief-stricken church leader.

Mr Mwangi said he was scheduled to travel in the same vehicle with his fellow Christians but there was a last-minute change of plans. His wife stayed behind and he boarded another vehicle.

“I was supposed to travel in the vehicle before a last-minute change of plans after more members volunteered to take the ill-fated trip,” Mr Mwangi said at the church compound.

The dead were five men and three women. “Two male members were church elders,” said the church leader.

Pastor Mwangi said one of them, an engineer by profession, was overseeing the construction of a new church building that is supposed to be officially opened next year, while two others were carpenters doing work at the church.

He said they all hailed from the same area, calling their deaths tragic for the church fraternity and the entire village.

When the Nation visited the church compound Wednesday, hundreds of church members were milling inside the premises, discussing the deaths in low tones. Others stared blankly into the clear blue sky, too shocked to utter a word.

Just less than a kilometre away, burial arrangements for one of the church elders who died in the accident were under way.

It was the same story at the Njabini Police Station as curious people trooped to the station to see the mangled wreckage of the two vehicles involved in the night accident.

The bodies were taken to the Catholic Hospital Mortuary.