Six killed in minibus accident

Six people, three of them women, died on Tuesday after a minibus and a pick-up with mourners and a body for burial collided head-on near Muraka market on the busy Kakamega-Kisumu road.

The pick-up driver, who is among the dead, reportedly rammed the minibus headed to Kakamega while trying to overtake another vehicle at a sharp bend near River Isiukhu.

The mourners at the back of the pick-up were flung into a ditch on impact and the dead woman’s body tossed from the coffin that splintered at the scene of the accident.

ON A MOTORBIKE

The 11am accident caused a traffic jam for several hours as rescue teams from the Kenya Red Cross, fire fighters, police and villagers strived to free the dead and injured from the mangled wreckage of the vehicles.

A witness, Mr Josphat Amusula, said he was riding on a motorbike behind the minibus when he saw the pick-up emerge after overtaking the vehicle ahead on a narrow section of the road.

“The next thing I heard was a loud bang followed by cries for help from passengers trapped in the minibus,” he said.

A woman and the conductor of the minibus were crushed by the vehicle after it overturned and fell on them as they attempted to escape.

The mourners were headed for their loved one’s burial at Masiyenze Village of Ikolomani constituency.

Family members are reported to have disagreed on where the woman who died in childbirth should be buried.

Kakamega General Hospital Medical Superintendent Roseline Atieno said 10 passengers were in serious condition with limb fractures.

Thirty-five patients with slight injuries were treated at the casualty department, while a woman died while being wheeled into theatre.

Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya visited the accident scene and asked motorists to exercise caution to end road carnage.