One dead, 20 miners injured after matatu rolls in Mandera

A matatu driver has died while twenty quarry workers have been injured in Mandera after the vehicle they were travelling in rolled after a tyre burst.

Mr Fredrick Otieno, a survivor of the mid-morning accident who was admitted to Mandera County Referral Hospital said the matatu transporting them to Bur Abor quarry was speeding when the tyre burst.

“We were twenty going to the quarry from Mandera Town when the matatu rolled at Girima hills [as a result of a] rear tyre burst,” he said.

Officials of the hospital said Mr Otieno will be transferred to Nairobi for specialised treatment as he suffered spinal injuries.

Mr Theophilus Muli, another victim, also accused the driver who succumbed to injuries of speeding.

Doctor Daudi Abdi Sheikh said the Mandera County Referral Hospital received twenty victims of the crash.

“We received twenty patients…we discharged three while [another] sixteen are still being monitored in the facility,” he said.

Dr Sheikh said one of the victims was in critical condition and that arrangements were underway to have him transferred to Kenyatta National Hospital.

“Quite a number of the victims have fractures, two are on plaster as we await X-ray results for the rest,” he said.

After the massacre of 36 quarry workers in December 2014 by suspected Al-Shabaab militants, security agencies demanded that the miners spend the nights in Mandera Town and be transported to their working sites every morning.

“We always to go to the quarry every morning using the same vehicle from Mandera but what has happened has shocked me,” said Mr Muli.